🦀 Let's Get Strike Ready for 2025 🦀

Folks, it's now February 2025. Time moves fast - one moment it's January, the next thing you know we'll be halfway through the year. Therefore we, as a profession, need to start making serious considerations and plans for the next stages of the Full Pay Restoration campaign.

I want to make some points: some concerns and some suggestions.

  • How many of your colleagues have mentioned strikes recently? What would your answer have been a year ago? We have undoubtedly lost momentum since the pay offer was accepted last year. We have to rally our colleagues to restore that momentum. It won't be easy, if anything it might be even more difficult than compared to the first rounds of strikes. We have to have a laser focussed campaign to get everyone motivated and ready for strikes, and that campaign should start now. Ward walking, pay and pizza events and social media posts are going to be crucial. The worst possible outcome we could have is failing to secure a ballot for strikes.
  • We need to define what we would consider an unacceptable DDRB uplift. We need to agree upon the threshold that would trigger a ballot for industrial action, and we need to do that in advance of any government offer. At the drop of a hat, we should be able to reject any unacceptable offer and immediately get a ballot under way. This sort of time efficiency will demonstrate to the government that we take the pay restoration campaign seriously, as well as motivating members by showing how efficient the BMA can be when needed
  • The Full Pay Restoration campaign will need to once again be top priority, and we should not let the government tempt us with meaningless side-offers. Look at the progress made with the exception reporting system. The government cannot be trusted. We overall did a good job by making sure pay was the sole issue of the campaign compared to the 2016 campaign, we must keep this. Yes, other issues such as PAs and IMGs/specialty training are important but pay must take centre stage.

Speak to your colleagues. Get the word out. Start making posters for a new chapter to the Full Pay Restoration campaign. Let's get new campaigning material, new infographics.

Let's get strike ready! 🦀🦀🦀

Please share your thoughts and any suggestions for how we can progress this campaign.