Hsopital Workers

[Young Master Smeet]

This is an interesting article, from a skim, regarding today's Doctor's strike:

http://www.hsj.co.uk/Journals/2013/01/15/u/m/x/briefing-junior-doctors-contracts.pdf

Quote:

If employers risk a dispute with

doctors and seek a wholesale

reduction in costs in an attempt to

make savings they know they have a

growing workforce coming through

the training pipeline. By 2025 the

Department of Health has estimated

there will be 27,000 more doctors

than currently working in the NHS. It

has already cut training numbers this

year and we know that by 2020,

according to the Centre for Workforce

Intelligence there will be 2,000 more

consultants than jobs in the NHS.

These statistics could embolden

employers to risk a raid on the junior

doctors’ contract

The Labour market will assert itself, even for Doctors.

[ALB]

Just drove past Kingston hospital. There was a small picket outside with placards saying "NOT FAIR. NOT SAFE". A motorist tooted as they drove past. So I did too. Might as well have a  so-called "fair day's wage" as long as the wages system lasts….

[JamesH81]

How do you reconcile this junior hospital workers strike with SPGB in Questions and Answers on Socialism etc and what they call a democratic PEACEFUL transition to Socialism ? ! …. as posted on this aswell: http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/support-docs.html

[ALB]

The strike was both democratic (in the strike ballot 98% voted for) and peaceful. Anyway, it wasn't about the establishment of socialism, just about getting better working conditions under capitalism. What were these (and other) workers supposed to do: let their employers walk all over them?

[JamesH81]

That is what I'm trying to work out, action that is not DISRUPTIVE but in support of the Junior / Student nurses ! ? ….

[Anonymous]

JamesH81 wrote:

That is what I'm trying to work out, action that is not DISRUPTIVE but in support of the Junior / Student nurses ! ? ….

What's there to work out?  Industrial action is intended to be disruptive…. for somebody, otherwise what would be the point of taking it? 

a junior doctor wrote:

Today we see junior doctors strike in England for the first time since 1975. This decision has not been taken lightly. A doctor’s primary duty of care is to look after patients, and to go on strike seemingly contradicts this basic principle. Yet, this is EXACTLY why they are going on strike. To avoid patient harm, not to cause it. To stand up against the unfair and unsafe contracts which the government are trying to impose, in a bid to try and protect the NHS for the future.

[alanjjohnstone]

I recall a long time ago when the nurses were restricted from taking industrial ation due to their ethical committment to care for patients and the most they could do was march in the streets when off-duty, other trade unions came to their assistance and support and actually struck themselves in solidarity.The NUM asked their members to voluntarily strike in support of the nurses and i know my own union branch in the postal workers union did as well. But in our show  of empathy for fellow workers who couldn't strike, were we not also disrupting the general public too, JamesH? So were we wrong to offer help to those who couldn't do it for themselves at the price of delaying someone elses mail for a day or so. 

[ALB]

JamesH81 wrote:

That is what I'm trying to work out, action that is not DISRUPTIVE but in support of the Junior / Student nurses ! ? ….

Violence is one thing. Disruption is another. There's a long tradition of non-violent "disruption" (Gandhi, Martin Luther King and all that). In a sense strikes come into that category. Those in charge are not going to take much notice otherwise.

[alanjjohnstone]

 A brief exposition of our attitude towards unions has been put online by DarrenOhttp://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2016/01/workers-resistance-1986.html

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