Wes Streeting’s divide and rule tactics may have won against the doctors – but more strikes are coming | Polly Smythe

This is the closest Labour has come to picking a fight with the unions. Still, public sector workers are struggling, and they have public sympathyWhen thousands of ambulance workers went on strike on 21 December 2022 to demand better pay and conditions, the then shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, wasn’t shy in pointing out who was responsible. In their refusal to negotiate, he tweeted, Rishi Sunak and Steve Barclay had driven NHS staff to strike, leaving patients “in no doubt who is to blame for this chaos”.Three years and one general election later, the surgical slipper is firmly on the other foot. Resident doctors – formerly known as junior doctors – have just finished a five-day strike, demanding a 29% pay rise over the next few years. Among placards on picket lines calling for “pay restoration” and an end to “cuts so deep that even a surgeon couldn’t fix it” were printed copies of Streeting’s tweet.Polly Smythe is labour movement correspondent at Novara Media Continue reading...

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