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Prime minister, ‘get the job finished’ on nurses’ pay – Pat Cullen

In her keynote speech to RCN congress, general secretary Pat Cullen urges the government to negotiate and says ‘conditions feel intolerable for too many nurses’
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen addressing congress in her keynote speech in Brighton

In her keynote speech to RCN congress, general secretary Pat Cullen urges the government to negotiate and says ‘conditions feel intolerable for too many nurses’

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen addressing congress in her keynote speech in Brighton
RCN general secretary Pat Cullen addressing congress in her keynote speech in Brighton. Picture: John Houlihan

The government has been issued an ultimatum to ‘get the job finished’ and negotiate on pay to avoid a fresh round of strikes.

Speaking to a packed room at the RCN’s annual congress today, general secretary Pat Cullen urged nurses to keep up pressure on the government to force it back around the negotiating table.

Healthcare conditions are ‘brutally unfair on patients’

‘The health and care system, across the whole of the UK, is sailing dangerously close to the wind right now,’ she said. ‘It is brutally unfair on your patients and the conditions feel intolerable for too many nurses and nursing support workers.’

RCN members are set to be re-balloted from 23 May until 23 June on fresh walkouts covering both the 2022-23 and 2023-24 pay years. The college has warned that strikes could go on until Christmas if it gets the new mandate.

Nobody wants to see even more nurses strike, says RCN head

Ms Cullen said in her keynote speech: ‘If you give the college another six-month mandate for strike action… the government will be forced to act once more. Nobody wants to see twice as many nurses take strike action. Or twice as many hospitals affected by a strike.

‘Prime minister, you did the right thing to open negotiations with me in February. Before the 75th birthday of the NHS this July, let’s get this job finished.’

Ms Cullen told congress that at 9pm last night England’s health and social care secretary Steve Barclay contacted her, asking to meet. She said the meeting will not be for pay negotiations, but added that it was ‘important’ she attend.

Pat Cullen with striking nurses outside Leeds General Infirmary. Picture: John Houlihan

‘Nurses are striking because our patients are dying’

Ms Cullen told congress she had never met a nurse or support worker who wanted to strike and many staff she spoke to on picket lines were ‘in tears at how far they had been pushed’.

She added: ‘Standing outside our work became the only way to change what was happening inside. Patients are not dying because nurses are striking; nurses are striking because our patients are dying. It is as clear as that.’

Ms Cullen slammed the ‘draconian’ and ‘vindictive’ new anti-strikes bill, currently in its final stage in parliament. If passed into law, it will allow ministers to impose statutory minimum levels of staffing during industrial action by nurses and other ‘essential’ workers.

Peers in the House of Lords recently voted for an amendment to the bill that would protect workers from being dismissed for joining picket lines.

Government’s migration talk ‘sickens me’

In her speech, Ms Cullen went on to criticise how the government talks about migration.

Referring to the Illegal Migration Bill, she said: ‘Diversity is one of our many strengths as a profession. In this hall alone there will be colleagues who completed their education, and perhaps started their careers, in Africa, in Asia, in the Americas.

‘Whether somebody comes to this country ready to work as a highly skilled nurse, or… as a political refugee from war or persecution, or they simply want a new and prosperous life in the UK – they are beyond welcome.

‘That should not need saying. But the way this government talks about migration sickens me.’


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