Hospital bosses are conducting a large war game exercise this month ahead of an expected crisis in the NHS this winter.
But the “enemy” is not coronavirus or the flu bug. It is their own dedicated workforce.
Faced with the threat of industrial action by nurses, midwives, doctors and support staff, health service chiefs have ordered hospitals to get ready.
A quasi-military operation, Exercise Arctic Willow, lasting several days, will test the response of health and social care systems to “multiple pressures”, including strikes.
Several unions, including Unison, the Royal College of Nursing, Unite, the Royal College of Midwives and the GMB are balloting for action over pay.
Having been given 4% this year, the Government is reportedly planning the imposition of a 2% pay rise – one-fifth of the rate of inflation – across the public sector in 2023/24. And in a classic case of Conservative “kick ’em when they’re down” policy, ministers are legislating to curb action in key public-facing roles, forcing workers to provide “minimum service levels” in a dispute.
The measure will apply initially to railways, but this is only the thin end of a very big wedge. Most jobs, from shopworkers to hospital porters, and bus and fuel tanker drivers, could be defined as “key” functions – as they were during pandemic lockdowns.
That was when the government needed them, and ministers joined the doorstep clapping in support of NHS workers.
That was then, but this is now when people face being made to work under duress to levels set in Whitehall by Tory politicians – a form of modern slavery, which is supposedly outlawed in this country.
It may not become a criminal offence to refuse to go to work with a bullwhip across your back, but on past form I expect this lot
to go for the money, sequestrating funds and destroying the unions, as they did with the mineworkers in 1984.
This is as grave a situation as any I can remember in half a century of writing about unions and workers.
Walking past Unison ’s HQ in London the other day, I noticed a large illuminated sign in the foyer. It reads: “If Our Pay Doesn’t Rise – WE WILL.”
They cannot say they have not been warned. This isn’t a game.
