Up to 100,000 nurses in the UK will go on strike on December 20 for more pay after a first strike on December 15. These will be the first strikes in the 106-year history of their union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), and the largest in the history of the country’s NHS.
Salary and inflation figures suggest that this should not be a surprise. Annual gross salaries of hospital nurses in the UK increased by 10 per cent in nominal terms but fell by 6 per cent in real terms between 2010 and 2019 according to a dataset released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The UK is not the only country in which health workers went on strike in 2022.
In Spain, thousands of health personnel, including doctors working in emergency services, were on strike in November. Besides a considerable increase in their wages, they requested more staff and more resources.
In France, health workers joined protests in several cities in June with similar demands. Doctors in Germany went on strike in March.
In Turkey, health personnel went on strike for better payment and work conditions in March. They also took to the streets in several Turkish cities in July to call for more action to prevent violence after a cardiologist was shot dead by a patient’s relative.
According to the Turkish Medical Association, thousands of Turkish doctors have left their posts to work abroad over the past decade. They mostly prefer to move to Western countries, especially Germany.
Health personnel, particularly hospital nurses, have worked ceaselessly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In many European countries, they are demanding better wages, improved working conditions, and more resources.
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