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VOTE YES... Rally behind the BMA... Not fair... Not Safe!
SUPPORT JUNIOR DOCTORS
STRIKING TO SAVE THE NHS
HE BMA DOCTORS UNION IS
balloting 56,000 junior doctors
(until 18 November) to strike, in
an escalation of a battle to defend the
NHS from Tory Jeremy Hunts plans to
slash unsocial hours pay.
Junior doctors are leading the resistance
to a major attack on pay and on our NHS.
On 17 October, up to 30,000 of them
marched on Downing Street, staging a sitdown protest, blocking roads, and giving
huge inspiration to all those who want to
stop the Tories destroying our NHS.
Local demonstrations of thousands
of junior doctors have hit the streets of
Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle and Leeds.
This vibrant campaign, cheered on by
the many who hate Tory austerity, has the
Tories on the back foot, intensifying the
crisis theyre in over tax credits.
Jeremy Hunt is scrambling to halt the
BMA strike. His latest offer reveals the
Tories weakness, and shows the campaign
is having an impact. But, rightly, it is being
met with derision by many junior doctors.
The Tories want to increase doctors
normal working hours from 7am to
7pm Monday to Friday, to 7am to 10pm
Monday to Saturday. These new working
hours would see doctors pay cut by an
average of 30 percent! So the 11 percent
pay rise Hunt announced is still a pay cut.
Spark
This is on top of repeated rises below
inflationeffectively a pay cut for five
years running. Junior doctors carry huge
debts, and work beyond contracted hours.
Hunt knows that the junior doctors will
win widespread support from the public,
and could light a spark and give confidence
to the nurses, porters, OTs, and so on, to
follow suit and join the fight.
This dispute is about more than pay.
The slogan, Not Fair, Not Safe,
highlights the impact on patient care.
Thats why every junior doctor should
vote YES, and why junior doctors need
support in any strike, protest or industrial
action. Theyre not just fighting for their
own contracts, but for workers across the
whole NHS and to defend the service.
Its no coincidence that one of the first
things the Tories did was rush through a
fundamental attack on our right to strike.
Their Trade Union Bill goes to its 3rd and
final reading is on 10 November.
Junior doctors are defending our NHS
The Tories are launching a huge assault
on working class people under the guise
of austerity. To succeed, they must weaken
the force with the power to mount real
oppositionour unions.
After thousands joined a lobby on 2
November, the Tories have retreated on
the ludicrous requirement to tell police in
advance how they plan to use social media.
The retreat shows that mobilising a real
fightback to defend our unions can force the
Tories back. But theres a long way to go to
defend our right to strike from this bill.
Unions must urgently organise to fight it,
and defy it if necessary if it becomes law.
Fruition
Junior doctors are the first to see an attack
on their unsocial hours come to fruition.
But we know that an attack on all NHS
workers unsocial hours is waiting in the
wings if the Tories manage to restrict our
right to strike back.
The NHS pay strikes at the end of 2014
were a magnificent show of workers across
the NHSblack and white, migrant and
non-migrantall coming together to defend
our NHS. This is the kind of action we
needmass, national coordinated strikes to
win. If the Trade Union bill goes through,
NHS workers will be among the worst
affected, with the threshold in ballots
for strikes so high that they will be very
difficult to reach.
Junior doctors should vote YES and
push for BMA to name strike dates
quickly. Everyone who cares about the
NHS and wants to fight against austerity
must rally behind the junior doctors,
because this is a fight we can win.
KILL THE TRADE UNION BILL
TUES 10 NOVEMBER
TUCG Protest 6pm: Parliament Sq
as bill goes to third reading
UNITE THE RESISTANCE
FIGHT AUSTERITY,
DEFEND OUR UNIONS
SAT 14 NOVEMBER
NATIONAL CONFERENCE 2015
SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, Natalie
Bennett Green Party, junior Dr Yannis
Gourtsoyannis, Candy Udwin PCS National
Gallery striker, Matt Wrack FBU general
secretary, John Hendy QC & others
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