Analysis comment

MSM reporting ‘most NHS unions’ have just voted for pay offer – here’s why it’s dishonest

‘NHS Staff Council’ vote is not news and not really ‘most members’ – old news about existing votes by right-wing unions is being rehashed as new for propaganda purposes

Nurses and other NHS workers continue to oppose Tories’ insulting pay ‘offer’, despite and government collusion to pressure them into backing down

The UK media have begun, in concert, to report – as if it is news – that ‘the majority of NHS unions’ have just voted to accept the government’s ‘pay deal’ – which in reality condemns NHS workers to yet more real-terms pay cuts.

But this is not really news. The ‘NHS staff council’, which consists of union and employer representatives, has held a vote – but the votes by members of Unison and the GMB, recommended to them by their right-wing leaders under pressure from Keir Starmer and the TUC, took place weeks ago and the votes of their reps on the council, along with those of two ‘Royal Colleges’, made the ‘council’ outcome a foregone conclusion.

Behind the new misleading headlines, junior doctors, the Royal College of Nurses and Unite members continue to fight for a pay deal that isn’t an insult to the hard work and sacrifice of NHS workers, but the latest propaganda appears to be a ploy by the government and their accomplices in the media and the NHS to fool the public into thinking the government’s pay deal is a decent one accepted by all but a few hold-outs, and to sap the morale of workers.

But the implication that the derisory deal is only rejected by a few is false – and the NHS workers are joined by huge numbers of teachers, lecturers, civil servants, rail and other workers in the struggle, while firefighters have achieved a deal far better than what is on offer to NHS workers, but continue to fight for fair pay after years of real-terms cuts.

The alleged betrayal by the Labour leadership and the TUC and the recommendations of right-wing union managers are a disgrace – one that is now being exploited in a further ‘divide and conquer’ ruse to try to browbeat and dishearten workers into giving up the fight. Shame on them and the weasel Establishment they are helping.

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15 comments

  1. I just KNEW the media’d pull this exact stunt, and said as much to me arl fella the other day when barclay said the RCN was:“being disrespectful to other unions”.

    Just how the effing f**k THAT works, I have NO idea.

    1. Inevitable, this would happen, once they managed to split the Unions. The age-old tactic of ‘divide and rule’.

      Now, they’re blaming one set of workers, and crowing about another set of workers.

      It’s time, some Union Members took a long hard look at their Union Reps and decided to change their Union from within.

      All very well handing over the subs, each month. If the Reps aren’t doing the job, the Members require, change the Reps, or change to another Union.

      I don’t know why five are involved, in the first place.

      1. “It’s time, some Union Members took a long hard look at their Union Reps and decided to change their Union from within. “

        Good luck with that one. Unfortunately the majority of Union members can’t even be bothered to vote in their Union’s internal elections.

      1. AND – justify your overt cynicism and veiled dismissal of legitimacy of those continuing to strike instead of thinking you’ve put me in my place with your inverted commas.

      2. …As well as that fucking infantile shrugging bollocks you seem to end more and more of your posts with these days.

  2. The longer the strikes last the less the unions have of winning. I dunno how the law stands but with public support for the health workers to remain stable now would be a good time to introduce work to rule between days of action. I get regular injections so I have a good relationship with workers at several NE units. Many of those I have spoken to see this struggle as a win-or-change job situation. They have a lot to fight for and the last thing they need is treachery from the top of similar unions and scab behaviour from NUJ members. The Tories, red/blue/green and orange, have been unnerved by this sudden upsurge of syndicalism, and looking across the channel they have every right to be.

    1. It would be interesting to see the details of each of these deals to ascertain whether the smaller unions/associations have been picked off with sweetheart deals

  3. Toffee – What on earth is your problem? Whatever it is you having yet another pointless and inane rant at me isn’t going to fix anything, is it?
    I have not attempted to de-legitimise anyone.

    1. I’m not the one with the problem, plums.

      You, however, seem to think you have – via keef – the solution to everything.
      You sneer at any other suggestion or plan of action that doesn’t conform to keefs’ will; ones that question the integrity and/or feasibility of his wishes, commonly veiled as behind-the-scenes shithousery. As is his wont .

      Hence your condescending response to my original post; made evident by your ‘worked it out’ , complete with inverted commas. Didn’t have the stones to put it into italics (as I have) for further effect – but only to give yourself a get-out.

      Didn’t work. And still not so much as a murmur from you of keefs point-blank reluctance to voice any sort of support for those trying to better their pay, conditions, and attempt to mend a critically ailing, socialism-borne national institution that WAS once the envy of the world.

  4. …Shame on them and the weasel Establishment they are helping…

    They _ARE_ the establishment Skwawkie. And they have been for decades. Forget what your ears tell you and rely on your eyes.

    It’s not a pleasant picture is it?

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