This morning saw midwives at the Whittington Hospital and throughout the nation go on strike for the first time in over 100 years, following repeated refusals by the government to listen to their concerns over pay.
Ambulance workers, nurses and other healthcare workers joined the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) on the picket lines at hospitals across England and Northern Ireland in the walkout from 7am to 11am on Monday 13 October. The protest was triggered by the Government’s refusal to implement the independent NHS Pay Review Body’s recommendation to give all NHS workers a 1% pay rise from 1 April 2014. It demonstrates the deep frustration NHS workers feel following years of pay freezes, below-inflation rises and cuts to NHS services by successive governments.
Cllr Caroline Russell, Green Party Councillor for Highbury East and Parliamentary Candidate for Islington North, who joined the midwives striking at the Whittington, said; “Midwives save the NHS money by supporting women through non-medicalised births. I will be forever grateful to the midwife teams from the Whittington who supported me through the births of each of my children.
“It is a sad demonstration of government priorities that they have ignored the advice of the independent Pay Review Body to increase the midwives’ pay when they have been so very quick to implement the pay review’s recommendations when it came to their own pay.”
Also present at the picket lines was Charlie Kiss, Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Islington South and Finsbury. He said, “It is madness that successive governments have failed to value our midwives and ensure they receive fair pay that rises as costs rise. The year on year wage freeze has pushed so many midwives to strike and indeed, many of the midwives I spoke to this morning at the Whittington Hospital were first time strikers.”
The strike will be followed by four days of work-to-rule, where NHS workers only work to the minimum contracted hours and further strike action may be taken if the Government refuse to talk to the Unions and address their concerns.