Junior doctors in England vote overwhelmingly to strike over pay, working hours

[Citizen]

37,000 junior doctors, 75% voter turnout, 98% say yes to strike.
"Not Safe, Not Fair – Can Strike, Will Strike!"


Thousands of junior doctors in England have voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike to protest proposed government changes to their contracts.

The action is expected to cause widespread disruption to the nation's public health service, with many hospitals likely to cancel routine outpatient clinics and non-urgent operations. Doctors will provide emergency care only starting Dec. 1, and full walkouts are planned on Dec. 8 and 16.

Junior doctors — including many medics who have more than a decade of experience — have been locked for months in a bitter dispute with the Conservative government about pay packages and long working hours.

More than 37,000 doctors in England got a ballot and three-quarters took part in the vote. Of those who voted, 98 percent were in favor of industrial action.

[Guardia Rossa]

I will laugh when even the petit-bourgeoisie gets proletarianized.
Oh wait, the process already begun.

On a more serious note, Its [Tim, am I writing it right?] good to know there are still people resisting against neoliberal capitalism.

I wouldn't doubt if people in Brazil made a strike against minimum salary, such is the ideological infiltration.

[Citizen]

I thought Brazil was amongst countries in Latin America which recently last year recalled its ambassador from Israel in condemnation of Protective Edge? That seems a little bit defiant, though that's from a U.S. perspective...

[The Feral Underclass]

What's really interesting about this is the accumulating hysteria and dramatics from the Department of Health. Apparently now doctors could be struck off if one of their patients dies during the strike...Ridiculous.

[PhoenixAsh]

I will laugh when even the petit-bourgeoisie gets proletarianized.
Oh wait, the process already begun.

On a more serious note, Its [Tim, am I writing it right?] good to know there are still people resisting against neoliberal capitalism.

I wouldn't doubt if people in Brazil made a strike against minimum salary, such is the ideological infiltration.

Tim is not online. So I am stepping in for him as the resident intern spellchecka.

*it's

....


Aside from this...I have this personal issue with immediately blocking out news about groups striking for higher wages when they traditionally part of segments that usually belong to top income brackets.

So I have no informed opinion on this issue.

What efforts are there to tie this in to wider struggles against HS reform protests?

Does this strike have any relevance for the working class?

[Comrade #138672]

I will laugh when even the petit-bourgeoisie gets proletarianized.
Oh wait, the process already begun.

On a more serious note, Its [Tim, am I writing it right?] good to know there are still people resisting against neoliberal capitalism.

I wouldn't doubt if people in Brazil made a strike against minimum salary, such is the ideological infiltration.http://classroom.synonym.com/use-s-s-correctly-4247.html

[reviscom1]

England, in fact Europe, is running out of money to spend on essential government services. The reason is that under Capitalism too much money concentrates in too few hands. European governments are trying to solve this by making cuts. They are finding it difficult to do so. Eventually they will be forced to the conclusion that a massive, enforced redsitribution of weath is the answer, but it will probably take a revolution to do so.

This is the reason why Communism is in fact alive and well and coming soon to a continent near you.

[x-punk]

I found this article detailing average wages for jobs in the UK. It's from 2012 but not a lot will have changed.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/nov/22/pay-salaries-survey-ashe-ons

The full up to date tables are available from the ONS (office of national statistics website)

Doctors were paid on average £71,279. From a look down the table this is close to Chief Executives wages and more than most managers and directors get paid. So it is a high paying job on average. The BMA (British Medical Assoc) has the breakdown of their wages across the country.

http://bma.org.uk/support-at-work/pay-fees-allowances/pay-scales

If you look, you can see it starts relatively low for junior doctors but soon starts to skyrocket up, outstripping most other professional salaries in the country.

It is also well known that junior doctors work very long hours at the start so I can kinda understand why they would be upset at the govt's plans.

Another gripe that doctors have been having lately in this country is the govt attempting to make them work weekends. I am not sure if this is part of the current strike action or not. Currently consultants (not junior doctors) have the option to opt out of working weekends which IMO is nonsense as most other health professionals such as nurses, carers, paramedics etc and other emergency services such as fire and police have to work weekends routinely.

I can appreciate junior doctors grievances about the govts plans especially given their long working hours and relatively low pay. To me it seems to be grossly imbalanced when you have consultants working only monday to friday for staggeringly high wages (and also doing private consultancy work on the side to give them even more money) and junior doctors being worked into the ground for a fraction of the salary.

There also does seem to be a shortage of doctors in the UK. I think they really have to look at getting more people trained up. University places are very limited for this profession and because of the funding issues it tends to be people from wealthier backgrounds who train as doctors. Certainly if the govt could find ways to get more people trained it would alleviate the strain on junior doctors and the NHS.

Unfortunately, I fear this strike action and the disruption it causes is only going to strengthen the argument for privatizing the NHS, something the current Conservative Govt has already talked about.

[Full Metal Bolshevik]

Tim is not online. So I am stepping in for him as the resident intern spellchecka.

*it's

....


Aside from this...I have this personal issue with immediately blocking out news about groups striking for higher wages when they traditionally part of segments that usually belong to top income brackets.

So I have no informed opinion on this issue.

What efforts are there to tie this in to wider struggles against HS reform protests?

Does this strike have any relevance for the working class?
Hmm?
Aren't most doctors working class?

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

NHS doctors aren't in private practice. They're not members of the bourgeoisie, strictly speaking.

[Gnat60]

BMA called off the junior doctors strike even though the majority supported the strike. Like any union the BMA is happy to take any scraps mouldy or not.

[MarxSchmarx]

Moved to workers struggle. The Proletarization of medical workers is real, and this thread shows it.

[The Feral Underclass]

BMA called off the junior doctors strike even though the majority supported the strike. Like any union the BMA is happy to take any scraps mouldy or not.

To be fair, the reason they suspended strike action was because Jeremy Hunt said he would not force the contract on them...

[PhoenixAsh]

Hmmm.


As far as I understood it is a temporary lift from Hunt untill the 13th of January and only seizes when a new negotiation agreement that previously stalled can be reached. After that Hunt will probably enforce this contract. Of course...the strikes are also paused until then.

But it seems to me that Hunt used this threat to force renegotiation on the junior doctors position and ensure a renegotiation within acceptable bounds for the establishment.

[Comrade Jacob]

Let's hope the doctors put the riot police in hospital ;)