It is the biggest strike day in its history. The British public health system decided to walk off Monday, February 6, to demand wage increases. As teachers, railway workers and border guards did last week in a day of social mobilization unparalleled in a decade in the UK, staff from the NHS, the public and free health service, joined the pickets strike early Monday morning. “Understaffed. Undervalued. Underpaid”denounced for example a sign brandished by two nurses from Saint-Thomas Hospital, in London.
Postponed operations, totally overwhelmed emergencies, waits of several hours for ambulances… The NHS, which until a few years ago was the pride of the British, is going through a deep crisis, weakened by the austerity policies implemented for more than 10 years and the consequences of the pandemic. Since its creation in 1948, it had never faced a strike of such magnitude, with tens of thousands of nurses and paramedics stopping work for the first time on the same day. They are calling for a pay rise as the UK, where inflation tops 10%, faces a severe cost of living crisis. But they come up against a conservative government which refuses any negotiation in the face of this movement supported by public opinion.