Nurses and midwives in Perth and Kinross to join national strikes next year after latest NHS pay offer rejected

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Nurses and midwives in Perth and Kinross will join strikes across Scotland next year after members of the Royal College of Nursing “overwhelmingly” rejected the latest pay offer for NHS workers.A total of 82 per cent of members balloted voting against the deal which would have seen the average salary rise by around 7.5 per cent.RCN Scotland said it will announce dates for strike action in the new year.Unite and Unison chose to accept the deal, however the GMB union became the first to reject it last week.The Royal College of Midwives also announced its members had rejected the offer, with almost two thirds (65 per cent) having voted against the deal which it claimed would see many midwives “actually worse off in real terms”.Meanwhile, Perth and Kinross will go without train services over the Christmas period due to the latest round of strike action by RMT members of Network Rail.Industrial action takes place from 6pm on Saturday, December 24 until 6am on Tuesday, December 27 across the British railway network resulting from a pay, jobs and conditions dispute with the track and infrastructure operator.A smattering of services will run elsewhere in Scotland during most of the strike days with a normal timetable returning between December 28-30.RMT members will also strike on January 3-4 and 6-7.Train services did not run for five days in Perth and Kinross last week due to the strikes.Union members “emphatically” rejected the latest pay offer, which the RMT says includes a five per cent and four per cent pay rise over a two-year period with “thousands of job losses”, as well as a cut in scheduled maintenance tasks and an increase in unsocial hours.Local Royal Mail staff will go on strike once more today as part of their