– The government has put us in that position. And now they don’t talk to us, says Olga Leach-Walters, a nurse in Birmingham, Great Britain, to SVT.
Leach-Walters is one of hundreds of thousands of nurses to go on strike. It could be the first nationwide strike in the nurses’ union’s history.
– It won’t be a good Christmas. Many of us will not be able to give our children what we would like to give. Nurses need to go to food banks, says Leach-Walters.
According to the nurses’ union, real wages have fallen significantly in the last ten years and now the union is demanding wage increases that match inflation of 11.1 percent plus an additional 5 percent. The British government claims the demands are unreasonable. They would cost ten billion pounds a year.
– We are losing a lot of staff, the nurses are quitting, says Leach-Walters.
Around 7.5 million people are on the waiting list for care in the UK, more than ever before. But despite that, support for the strike from the public is great.
– They must be able to get by on their salary, says Emma, who lives in Birmingham.
See more in the clip.