UNISON members in the health service will be making their voices heard across the UK tomorrow, as NHS Protest Day highlights anger at being denied even a 1% pay rise by the government.
UNISON will be in Liverpool for the meeting of the NHS Confederation, where the union hopes to raise the issue with both the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and his Labour shadow, Andy Burnham.
In London, general secretary Dave Prentis will be joining TUC leader Frances O’Grady as part of the joint-union Together for the NHS umbrella campaign, to present a cheque to government for the £1.5bn, representing estimates of the amount of unpaid overtime that NHS health workers donate every year.
And branches around the UK have organised their own protests.
Check with your branch or region to find out what’s going on in your area – you can also look at a list of just some events that is linked to below.
UNISON head of health Christina McAnea said that “this is just the start of our campaign for fair pay in the NHS.
“Up and down the country, UNISON NHS members will be delivering a message that they deserve decent pay. We’ll be following this up with more political action and then asking members to take industrial action.”
And she continued: “We need to send a message to the UK governments that enough is enough. Budgets are cut, jobs have been cut and staff are constantly being asked to do more with less resources.
“This isn’t good for staff, but more importantly, it’s not good for patients.
“We’re asking members to speak out tomorrow for fair pay for themselves, but also because a demotivated and demoralised workforce is not good for the NHS and patients.”
There are infographics available to use online, which you can find in the resources section of the NHS pay campaign pages.
Download them now and use them in your social media campaigning. You can boost the online message by keeping an eye on @unisontweets and retweeting message to all your followers.
To help get the protest trending, we’ll be using the hashtags #5Jun and #NHSpay.
UNISON is also still promoting the e-petition started by the health service group executive – use the link below to sign yourself and to spread around to a wider audience.
List of NHS Day of Protest events
NHS pay resources page – includes infographics and model petition
