The RCN ballot is our voice, the voice of nursing and I urge you to use your vote. For you, your colleagues, your family, your service and your patients. Vote for change, vote for action.
Ballot papers will be landing through the post after 15 September so it’s vital your details are up to date with us. We need your correct postal address, employer and job category to ensure you are identifiable as eligible to vote and get your papers.
We face a hard winter with an 80% increase in utilities in October on top of the 54% increase last April; inflation at 11% and the increase to interest rates affecting our mortgage payments. We cannot sustain this cost-of-living crisis with a real-terms pay cut while we are also going to work each day to work in understaffed, overstretched services at breaking point as pressures increase as we move towards winter.
A vote to strike, however difficult we find this decision, is the only way that we can be heard and stand up for ourselves, so we stop being treated this way.
The South West Board, staff and representatives are out and about across the region meeting members in their workplaces across the NHS to galvanise support and answer member questions.
With BJ Waltho, Chair of RCN Congress and RCN South West staff, I was out at sites of the University HealthCare Dorset NHS Foundation Trust last week. Clear messages were coming out from the many members who spoke to us, and these have been repeated across the region and England as a whole.
Key for me is that 100% of the members we met said they would vote for strike action. Here are some of the other things they said:
“I cannot afford to keep working with the cost of travel.”
“There needs to be a general strike.”
“Staffing levels are unsafe every day and that worries me.“
“For the first time in a long career I am thinking of giving up nursing.”
“It’s impossible to raise red flags. We are asked to mitigate and not raise them.”
“Recruitment and retention is so bad, no one wants senior posts either.”
“Large numbers of mental health patients are being cared for in areas not conducive to their care and safety.”
“I come to work frightened because of the violence and aggression from patients and family members.”
“We need to strike.”
“The cost of living and utility bills frightens me.”
We are hearing similar stories across England as staff and representatives visit workplaces to meet members and there is a groundswell like I’ve never seen before with members calling for action.
We will continue to get out to workplaces to meet members in the coming weeks so please come and speak to us.
For our colleagues in the independent sector, please know you are not forgotten. I know things are equally tough for you. However, we believe that an additional rise to NHS pay will put pressure on independent sector employers to also pay more if they are to retain their staff. We are all in this together, so let’s work to show this government that, we will be heard, we will act, and they must listen.
As your RCN Council member and a working nurse, I urge you all vote for strike action.
Geoffrey
PS I understand that voting for strike action is a difficult choice, and you will have questions about how patients will be kept safe and services will keep running, as well as concerns about losing pay. Read more about derogations and the strike fund here in our Industrial Strike Action Ballot FAQs.
Ballot papers will be landing through the post after 15 September so it’s vital your details are up to date with us. We need your correct postal address, employer and job category to ensure you are identifiable as eligible to vote and get your papers.
We face a hard winter with an 80% increase in utilities in October on top of the 54% increase last April; inflation at 11% and the increase to interest rates affecting our mortgage payments. We cannot sustain this cost-of-living crisis with a real-terms pay cut while we are also going to work each day to work in understaffed, overstretched services at breaking point as pressures increase as we move towards winter.
A vote to strike, however difficult we find this decision, is the only way that we can be heard and stand up for ourselves, so we stop being treated this way.
The South West Board, staff and representatives are out and about across the region meeting members in their workplaces across the NHS to galvanise support and answer member questions.
With BJ Waltho, Chair of RCN Congress and RCN South West staff, I was out at sites of the University HealthCare Dorset NHS Foundation Trust last week. Clear messages were coming out from the many members who spoke to us, and these have been repeated across the region and England as a whole.
Key for me is that 100% of the members we met said they would vote for strike action. Here are some of the other things they said:
“I cannot afford to keep working with the cost of travel.”
“There needs to be a general strike.”
“Staffing levels are unsafe every day and that worries me.“
“For the first time in a long career I am thinking of giving up nursing.”
“It’s impossible to raise red flags. We are asked to mitigate and not raise them.”
“Recruitment and retention is so bad, no one wants senior posts either.”
“Large numbers of mental health patients are being cared for in areas not conducive to their care and safety.”
“I come to work frightened because of the violence and aggression from patients and family members.”
“We need to strike.”
“The cost of living and utility bills frightens me.”
We are hearing similar stories across England as staff and representatives visit workplaces to meet members and there is a groundswell like I’ve never seen before with members calling for action.
We will continue to get out to workplaces to meet members in the coming weeks so please come and speak to us.
For our colleagues in the independent sector, please know you are not forgotten. I know things are equally tough for you. However, we believe that an additional rise to NHS pay will put pressure on independent sector employers to also pay more if they are to retain their staff. We are all in this together, so let’s work to show this government that, we will be heard, we will act, and they must listen.
As your RCN Council member and a working nurse, I urge you all vote for strike action.
Geoffrey
PS I understand that voting for strike action is a difficult choice, and you will have questions about how patients will be kept safe and services will keep running, as well as concerns about losing pay. Read more about derogations and the strike fund here in our Industrial Strike Action Ballot FAQs.
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