News / protest
‘Claps don’t pay the bills’ – NHS workers march through city centre
Hundreds of people joined a march on Saturday calling for better pay and conditions for NHS workers.
NHS staff, union members and supporters came together to protest through the city centre with banners and sighs held aloft.
Outside Wills Memorial Building, shouts of “claps don’t pay the bills” could be heard as protesters called for an urgent resolution of the NHS’ staffing crisis so the public “receive the healthcare they deserve”.
is needed now More than ever
Organised by NHS staff and Protect the NHS, the demonstration began close to the Bristol Royal Infirmary and wove its way along Park Row and Park Street before a rally took place on College Green.
There, representatives from healthcare unions and workers spoke about the urgent need for the government to meet with unions. The dispute over pay and working conditions between ambulance workers, nurses, junior doctors and other NHS workers with the government remains deadlocked.
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Addressing about 100 people outside City Hall, Dr Emma Runswick, deputy chair of council at the British Medical Association, said some NHS workers are in “real poverty circumstances”.
“Sure, some of us better off. Some of us have family assistance; some of us have no dependents.
“But when did we start to accept in this country that you have to have family to help you to live well?
“When did we start to accept that you have to be starving to want to fight for better?”
Runswick continued: “Every single person in the world deserves not just the basics of food and shelter but also joy, art, sport, theatre and social time.
“That’s even more vital for those of us in the jobs that we are doing: full of death and despair, long hours, rotational training and being moved away from your family.
“We are looking for pay restoration, not even a pay rise. We want to reverse pay cuts thrust upon us since 2008 when this government decided that we all have to pay for the mistakes of the banks.
“We’ve had enough. Doctors and health workers might be a group that is traditionally placid but not anymore.”
The BMA, Unison and other healthcare unions took to the streets on Saturday afternoon
The NHS is facing a day of massive disruption when nurses and ambulance staff in England and Wales plan to stage a joint strike over pay on February 6.
All photos: Betty Woolerton
Read next:
- UWE staff strike for the first time in nine years
- BRI nurses continue strike as union issues ultimatum
- ‘The right to protest is one of the most crucial freedoms we have’
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