1.3 – Pressure groups
On Tuesday 7 April, the resident (formerly ‘junior’) doctors began a six-day strike over pay. This was the fifteenth such strike since 2023. Industrial action has been caused by the BMA’s contention that resident doctors’ pay in the NHS has not kept up in real terms (once inflation is taken into account). It is estimated that pay has fallen by around 20% in real terms since 2008 (around the time of the global financial crisis when public sector workers experienced pay freezes).
In the final years of the Conservative government, a range of trade unions were in disputes with the government over improved pay deals for their members. Many of these were resolved once Labour came to office in July 2024 – unsurprising given their closer ideological alignment – however, the dispute with the BMA has rumbled on.
Given the comparatively high wages doctors earn (compared to average incomes across the UK), public sympathy for the strikes has been somewhat muted, which perhaps helps to explain the government’s refusal to concede to the BMA’s demands. Labour governments are also wary of being accused of being in lockstep with their ‘union paymasters’, even if the BMA is not actually affiliated with the party.
The ongoing BMA dispute serves as a good example that not all trade unions are closely affiliated with Labour, and nor does having a similar ideological outlook guarantee a pressure group success when dealing with the government.