Anger at the insulting government pay offer to nurses is fuelling demands to reject and to hold the union leaderships to account, writes our correspondent 

There is widespread dissatisfaction among NHS workers with the way the RCN leadership is recommending to its members a way below inflation pay offer from the government and mass anger at the way the union is conducting this ballot.

Despite the RCN’s strong-arming attempts to force a #VoteAccept, polls from the #VoteReject side indicate a huge level of dissatisfaction with the offer among members and a growing opinion that rejection is the only feasible way forward. On the canvassing trail, I’ve been saddened by stories of how very let down members feel by the offer. It’s incomprehensible to many, how RCN council deem it acceptable to present such an inadequate offer to the members who pinned their hopes on them, for pay justice.

The gap between the rhetoric from the unions, calling for 19% pay increase, and the pitiful pay offer from the government that the union is recommending members accept is vast. Workers know that real change is needed to retain staff and save the NHS. The fact that nurses have, since the inception of the NHS, been subject to gross underpayment means that an adequate level of pay restoration would necessitate something in the ballpark of a 50% increase, making this 5% even more insulting.

Attacks

The nursing union has called in police and an Internet Security task force to investigate a Vote Of No Confidence (VONC) push from its own members, and it is attacking those leading the Vote Reject campaign. Leaders of the Vote Reject campaign and NHS Workers Say No! have also been attacked by the right-wing press in recent weeks with no visible defence from the union of its members or of its democratic process.

Members, demoralised at the union’s recommendation of a 5% pay rise, are seeking an Emergency General Meeting to table the vote, in a bid to pursue an improved offer. But the union has issued a raft of claims dubbing the VONC petition fraudulent and criminal. They accuse members of fixing the petition outcome by ‘dead voting’ and personation. The petition’s framers say that the petition followed union protocol to the letter and defend its credibility.  As one said: “Because the RCN are embarrassed at their own negotiating ineptitude, they are now trying to use intimidation tactics to silence our legitimate objections”.

The other health unions are behaving not too differently with the GMB issuing a ballot with a sentence in bold above the boxes to accept or reject stating ‘if you reject the offer, you are stating that you are willing and prepared to take part in sustained industrial action, with minimum derogations’. The tactics from the unions are similar to what you would expect from bosses and the government.

Breach of charter

Members have also cited RCN threats to report them to the nursing regulator, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), for being vocal in the #VoteReject campaign. An unnamed nurse said “The RCN is breaching its own Respect Charter in all this. To be honest, they need to be investigated themselves”.

Personally, I can vouch for widespread concerns over the NMC’s failure to make a stand against the unsafe conditions pertaining in the NHS. One could be forgiven for thinking that the NMC members justify their high salaries by an overly zealous invigilation of individual nurses at the expense of attempting to address the real causes of the erosion of conditions in the NHS. Surely their duty of care should extend to a challenge of the unsafe conditions imposed on NHS staff and patients by years of punitive austerity policies? Concern has also been expressed at what is seen as a disproportionate NMC oversight of BAME staff.

The ‘offer’ includes a £1000 one-off payment, a bribe when low paid workers are faced with the cost of living crisis. Whether the vote to reject is above 50% or not, having a big minority against the offer will still hold significance in the fights ahead and will be off the back of a strong campaign led by rank and file workers.

Whether Accept or Reject wins at this point, my personal future focus will be on working to make the RCN a real grassroots, member-led organisation, worthy of the descriptor union.

Despite the current rancour and disarray, I believe that through our pay campaign members who have campaigned in our thousands have in fact made a strong start in building the foundations of such an organisation. So there is reason to be hopeful.

Nurses are finally off our knees and must stay standing, in order to achieve true pay and professional justice.

#Vote Reject

The RCN and Unison ballot closes on 14 April, GMB and Unite close on 28 April.