More than three in five patients support NHS workers striking, a study has revealed.
A YouGov poll for the TUC shows 61% of those diagnosed with a health condition back nurses, paramedics and other health workers taking industrial action.
The survey of 1,758 adults also shows that the majority of parents (53%) support teachers striking. School staff overwhelmingly voted for industrial action earlier this week.
The TUC said it showed patients and parents see right through the Government’s “divide and rule tactics”.
The body, which represents many trade unions, says nurses have lost £42,000 in real earnings since 2008, the equivalent of £3,000 a year, while paramedics have lost £56,000, or £4,000 a year.
During the pandemic the public stood on their doorstep and clapped for NHS health workers every Thursday evening.
The TUC says the polling indicates the public’s recognition that the key workers who got Britain through Covid are “owed a decent pay rise”.
Meanwhile Lord Winston accused the Government of having “lost control” of the NHS.
The Labour peer and fertility expert said: “When you have ambulances queuing outside hospitals, when you've got people dying unnecessarily, unfortunately, when you see people with heart attacks and with cancer not being treated on time... I mean, that is actually losing control of healthcare."
Lord Winston also said that the Government has been “incredibly lucky with Covid” as it “gave them a perfect excuse not to do things”.
He told Sky News' Beth Rigby there was "no question" ministers were using the pandemic to cover for other underlying issues, adding: “This crisis was inevitable without Covid."
On Wednesday, it was announced that thousands of nurses and ambulance workers will strike on the same day in a major escalation of NHS unrest.
The GMB announced that more than 10,000 blue light workers in England will walk out on February 6 and 20, and March 6 and 20, in a fraught dispute over pay.
The February 6 date coincides with further strike action by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England and Wales, marking the first time paramedics and nurses will down tools on the same day. Nurses will strike again the following day.
Nurses also staged walkouts on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
The Government has refused to budge on pay, saying the RCN’s demands were “unaffordable”.
However it emerged that agency staff have been being offered £40 an hour to cross picket lines and cover the shifts of striking nurses this week.
Meanwhile tens of thousands of teachers voted for seven days of rolling strikes in February and March.
Schools may be forced to close if they don't have enough staff to teach children safely, after 90% of overworked teachers voted to strike in the National Education Union’s ballot.
One in eight newly qualified teachers (NQTs) leave the profession after one year in the job, with almost one-third of NQTs (31%) leaving within their first five years, the TUC says.
TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “Key workers in the public sector helped get the country through the pandemic.
“This polling shows that patients and parents see right through the divide and rule tactics of this Conservative government.
“These are people that really rely on our public services – they know all too well the damage done by year on year pay cuts.
“They are fed up with ministers stonewalling negotiations – and they think that workers across the public sector are owed a decent pay rise.
“It’s time this Conservative government listened to patients, parents and the rest of the British public.”
RCN’s General Secretary Pat Cullen said: “It is clear to me that the public support for what we are doing is overwhelming.
“Standing on picket lines this week I have seen and heard this support first hand. It is clear the public stands with nursing staff as they know that when nurses speak, they speak for patients.
“It is now time for government to come to the table and give nurses and their patients the respect they deserve.”
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