My speech from the latest NHS Say No demo......
Thank you to all showing their support today, the solidarity shown by the local trade unions, MP’s, and members of the public to our plight has been invaluable. There is power in being heard and understood, we finally feel as though our voice is resonating across the country.
The NHS say no campaign grew from years of frustration and misrepresentation. The powers that be using our workforce and professions as bargaining tools to win votes when needed, their promises as hollow as their clapping every Thursday.
When it was announced that most NHS workers were excluded from the latest public sector pay increases, they lit the torch, and an uprising like I’ve never seen in my relatively short nursing career erupted. Finally some sort of reaction to the constant hammering from this government.
Hallelujah.
What began as a Facebook group of incensed colleagues who were trying to make a difference has grown to almost 85,000 members. A month ago we marched, today we stand, the message is the same – 15% pay increase for ALL NHS workers.
The response from Matt Hancock and government is to remind us of the scam they call a 3 year pay deal, which we should all apparently be grateful for. The manipulation of maths by the Tory Party is astounding, always skewed to paint a picture that fits their rhetoric.
However they are trying to manipulate the wrong workforce, we’re pretty good at numbers, if we fiddled the maths like they do our patients would pay the price. We work to a code of conduct and hold professional ethics as an essential discipline within our roles, it would be nice to think those making these huge decisions would demonstrate the same discipline.
So we are left disputing those in power regarding this supposed pay deal and it’s been eye opening for me personally to see this blatant manipulation of facts. The pay deal was skewed to be beneficial to newly qualified staff, those more experienced hardly felt an increase at all. This year it will be a whopping 1.7% for most staff, a long way off the 15% Matt Hancock purported a couple of months ago, and nowhere near in line with inflation. He conveniently missed out that his government have awarded themselves the 8th payrise in a decade of austerity, and their cheeky covid bonus of £10k, oh and the £50 odd thousand he claimed in expenses last year.
It’s not just the government who have let us down, it’s also hugely down to the Unions who have been misrepresenting their members for years. However, they are starting to listen. Following pressure from NHS say No they have begun to align their campaigns – GMB 15%, UNITE – 15%, RCN – 12.5%, and currently Unison are lagging behind with £2000 for every worker.
Whilst this is massively positive - it’s not enough. We need to all be singing from the same hymn sheet and work together, this government cannot be given a reason to manipulate the numbers. We are so much stronger together.
So my message is this – for anyone within a union who works within healthcare – start getting involved. For a long time I was one of those people who would moan but not really know how to do anything productive about it. Find out who your reps are, ask to attend meetings, ask them what they are doing to fight for a decent increase for All staff and how YOU can help.
For a long time we have felt disempowered, disillusioned and despondent – but we have proved with the NHS Say No campaign that we do have a voice.
We are so passionate about advocating for those we care for, it’s time we advocate for ourselves.
We can’t expect those that represent us to fight our battles without a bit of a push, we need to start prodding. Collectively, we hold the power to force change.
My message to Matt Hancock, Boris Johnson and the rest of the elite club determining our fate, for once in your lives, start listening.
For years the NHS has been desecrated by the Tory government, slowly and slyly picked apart, chronically underfunded and undervalued. The entire NHS workforce proved that despite this, when faced with a global pandemic, we can adapt and we can overcome. Despite your failings, we battled on with inadequate ppe, literally risking our lives to save others whilst procurement of essential equipment was hindered by corrupt contacts allocated purely through nepotism.
Mates rates where I’m from usually mean you get a bargain – rather than spaffing billions up the wall on non existent or useless products.
Yet there is apparently no money left on that magical money tree for a pay rise for nhs workers. The hypocrisy is unreal. Rather than investing in your mates hair brained schemes, invest in the experts who have been doing the job for years. Without this workforce there is NHS. We are already 100,000 members of staff short, nothing they have done over recent years has made any change to retention.
For the skills and experience needed for these professions we deserve a fair wage. Claps don’t pay the bills, and unfortunately we can’t charge expenses for the extortionate car parking fees we’re charged to work, we couldn’t claim a £10k bonus to help us equip for covid working and our pay deal was a farce.
It’s time we were valued for our profession.