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RCN offers nurses ‘campaign’ training ahead of possible strike ballot

Online course will teach thousands of nurses how they can campaign for change and pursue goal of significant pay rise
Picture shows a young woman looking at a computer screen

Online course will teach thousands of nurses how they can campaign for change and pursue goal of significant pay rise

Picture shows a young woman looking at a computer screen
Picture: iStock

Nurses are being offered leadership training sessions ahead of a possible ballot for industrial action in protest at the government’s recommendation of only a 1% pay rise for NHS staff.

The RCN announced that it is funding thousands of members to attend a six-week online training programme to help nurses identify issues important to them such as pay, staffing levels, employment rights and safety, and how they can campaign for change.

The move comes amid continued anger over the government’s 1% pay recommendation to the independent Pay Review Body (RB), which advises ministers about NHS pay. The RB is due to report back to the government with its advice in May.

College says training will increase its capacity to harness its power

Dame Donna Kinnair
Dame Donna Kinnair

RCN general secretary Dame Donna Kinnair said: ‘Our members are determined to be ready for all eventualities this summer. If politicians choose to ignore the need for a pay rise for NHS staff, this training will increase our capacity to organise, mobilise and use the power we have.’

Professor Kinnair added: ‘Each one of our members knows what needs to improve in their workplace and their community – and that is a significant and substantive pay rise to deliver sufficient staff to provide safe and effective care.’

Last month the RCN announced it had set aside £35 million for an industrial action fund – the first such move in its history – in support of nursing staff if they choose to vote for action in any ballot.

The RCN’s on-going Fair Pay for Nursing campaign is asking for a 12.5% pay rise for NHS staff across the UK.

Training is part of worldwide seminars led by campaign strategist

For the campaign training, nursing staff will study alongside campaigners from across the world in online seminars led by organiser, campaign strategist and author Jane McAlevey.

On her website Ms McAlevey, a senior policy Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, refers to what she calls ‘withering attacks on working people from the US Supreme Court, conservative state and local governments, and the corporate class’ and says the survival of American democracy ‘depends on rebuilding unions’.

To register your interest in the online training sessions visit the Organising for Change page on the RCN website.


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