UNISON NHS workers were striking from dawn outside London’s Guy’s and St Thomas’s hospitals – some of the thousands of people who UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis has called Britain’s “unsung heroes” fighting for their pensions.
Eddyna Danso has been an operating theatre practitioner for 37 years, yet today she said she felt “passionate and angry” about the attacks on her and her children’s futures.
“I’ve paid my pension all these years because in my old age I did not want to live off the state. But now I don’t know what will happen, but I do know that I’m going to have to work longer and that everyone coming after me will have to work longer and get less.”
Ms Danso said that for her whole life she has worked “non-stop, really hard. In the 1970s and 80s when I had my three children you only had six weeks maternity leave so I was back in the operating theatre six weeks after having each of my three babies.
“Mr Cameron talked about fairness and how we are all in this together. But this isn’t fair.”
Ms Danso said that one of her children now works for local government and is also on strike today.
“His pension will also be affected. He will have to work longer before he can get it. But there’s also no way he can afford to buy a home or anything like that in this climate.”
Jane Collier has been an occupational therapist at St Thomas’s for 15 years.
She says that she is going to lose £400 a year because of the change to her pension and will potentially have to work longer.
“I was hoping to retire at 60, but now I may have to retire at 66,” she says. “My main concern is that at 66 I may not be physically able to do my job. Being an occupational therapist can be physically demanding.
“I think there’s probably going to be a glut of people like me forced to work longer but who will have to retire because of physical incapacity and that’s going to be a drain on the state – no one has thought about that.”
Ms Collier felt that after the negotiations had proved so fruitless the day of action was “the only way to get the message across”.
Ms Danso said that the branch had worked with hospital managers to ensure that emergency services would not be affected.