Why NHS staff should #DitchTheDeal & reject the government pay offer

This article was originally published on OurNHS/OpenDemocracy during the 2018 pay dispute.

The government is offering NHS staff a 6.5% pay rise, after almost a decade of pay freezes and 1% pay rises. With an NHS in almost permanent crisis and near collapse, this appears like a good thing, but when compared with the reality of the present state of the NHS, it’s a poisoned chalice that union members should reject.

Thoughts on the RCN Safestaffing campaign

On April 18th I attended the London Region conference for the RCN safe staffing campaign. I was surprised at how small the conference was, with only 30-40 spaces for members to attend when RCN London's membership is well over 60,000.

Still it was a promising initiative that showed the RCN leadership is trying to do things differently and move away from the top down approach of running things that has exemplified their campaigns for the last several years.