New South West RCN website to fight the South West Pay Cartel

Published: 31 July 2012

The NEW South West RCN website about South West NHS Pay Cartel in the region went live last week (Friday 27 July). The site is full of information, resources and guidance on how: members, activists, non activist and the public, can make their voices heard and join in the campaign to prevent the South West Cartel from making changes to the pay, terms and conditions of hardworking nurses and healthcare workers in the South West.

The new site contains lots of useful information on the Pay Cartel such as:

• what the Cartel plan to do : the Project Initiative Document
• the latest news on the Cartel, including examples of: press release, local coverage and national coverage
• list of the employers involved in the Cartel  (and those not involved)
• predicted economic impact of the Cartel on the region
• myths and pitfalls of regional pay and the national ‘Agenda for Change’ document
• what the RCN is doing and has done
• finally what you can do to get involved.
  

Jeannett Martin, Director of the South West, who is heading the campaign against the Cartel by the South West RCN, said: “The new website is a really important source of information about the Pay Cartel, what we are doing to stop it, and of course how you can get involved.

“The cartel is trying to undermine NHS staff pay, terms and conditions; we are already seeing the affects of these proposals on staff morale and the knock on effect on patient care. How it will affect recruitment and staff retention in the region has yet to be seen.

“We need to fight these changes, the only way we will succeed is if nurses and healthcare workers join us and say NO! The website enables us to pass on the latest information on cartel and ensure you are all kept up to date, it can also be used to rally support to events or tasks when needed, so watch this space.“

To access the Cartel website, go to the South West regional pages on the RCN web, you can click the Cartel logo and go straight to the new Cartel pages, or use the navigation bar on the left of the page (near the bottom), or use this link: www.rcn.org.uk/aboutus/england/southwest/south_west_pay_cartel. The Pay Cartel pages will be updated constantly over the next few months so bookmark the page and visit regularly.

To add information about what’s happening in your local trust to your branch site on the website, contact Claire Wickes, Assistant Regional Communications Officer for the South West, on: claire.wickes@rcn.org.uk