Nurses hold 'silent' protest

Amanda Crook

December 06, 2007

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THOUSANDS of health workers from across Britain have held silent protests against the sacking of a Manchester nurse.

Members if Unison took to the streets wearing gags a month after psychiatric nurse Karen Reissmann, who criticised NHS cuts, was fired for speaking to the media.

Almost 100 community staff, who care for 1,000 seriously ill patients, have been on strike since November 8 and say they will not return to work until Ms Reissmann is reinstated.

Unison held a solidarity day nationwide under the slogan Silent Nightingales - Don't Silence NHS Staff This Christmas, Reinstate Karen.

Ms Reissmann's appeal started on Monday and is expected to finish today.

Vall Midson, who works with Karen, said: "A lot of staff have thanked us for standing up for the NHS. We had quite a few members of the public bring us sandwiches and flasks of tea to the demos. It is good to know everyone has heard about the strike and why we are doing it."

Unison again backed Ms Reissmann, saying they will defend members' rights to speak out without fear of persecution.

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Daws, Brisbane (06/12/2007 at 09:52)

Disgusting behaviour by NHS management, who feel they can treat nursing staff and the public with such disdain. I left the NHS five years ago to work in australia due in part to the awful and large numbers of middle management, what was once a worthwhile and enjoyable job is destroyed by their heavy handed psychopathic methods to managing people. Again the losers in this are the patients - but hey! what do the management care they have private health insurance.
As an addit, i see more and more English nurses coming here all the time and its not just the weather they're escaping from.
Paul Brisbane

The Bobelesque (06/12/2007 at 12:19)

Shouldn't Comrade Reissmann be spending time looking for a new job?

come-on-city (06/12/2007 at 12:26)

The Bobelesque

Shouldnt you be trying to find the feet of some people in authority so that you can kiss them?

CrankedUpReallyHigh, Tameside (06/12/2007 at 12:54)

Nurses are hardly militant. Ignore the whingers, I'm sure most right minded people support you.

Pentest (06/12/2007 at 13:06)

It just proved now that the NHS in Manchester is being run by a tyranny, when a dedicated nurse is sacked for speaking out, what the majority of us all ready know. All we can pray for is that serious illness falls on these so called higher archie, and with a bit of luck over the festive. season.

Sid (06/12/2007 at 14:21)

What were the management frightened of in the first place was it the truth. It is the management side of the NHS that is bleeding the system dry of money and also of causing so many problems, it is not the hard working nurses at fault and I admire them for speaking the truth. They are standing up for OUR rights against this bloodsucking regime of so called managers who are just wrecking it all.

Fran M, Stockport (06/12/2007 at 14:36)

Not feet 'come-on-city', maybe another part of the anatomy.

Giles, YOUR Voice (06/12/2007 at 16:49)

The key thing that you need in a strike is public support and sympathy. Both are evaporating fast in this case.

Are we back to the seventies here when people striked at the drop of a hat?

Try striking in the private sector or standing outside wearing these masks and brninging your profession into disrepute. You would be at the labour exchange by the end of the week. We need more foreign medical staff who might appreciate having a job.

Shame on you all.

Pescado (06/12/2007 at 17:36)

Pentest what is a "higher archie" ?

mindblowing, manchester (06/12/2007 at 18:55)

giles,yur voice. i hardly think a comparison with the 1970;s is fair.Union memebership nowadyas is very small , whilst the unions themselves are now health and safety groups that offer various benefits to its members, they also raise money for the Labour party, they are not really a campaigning group anymore.
i also think that those Nurses who are striking would not have taken the decision lightly.indeed given the large number of nurses who resigned from Unison,especialy in the south region, and who have contuinued to work,returning to work with scabs wont be pleasant.Finaaly i thought the silent protest was actually quite inventive

george foreman (06/12/2007 at 18:58)

Giles.. when you're working in the public sector, things are different. These people are working for something they care about, not for some one else's pay packet.

frazzo (06/12/2007 at 20:35)

Public support and sympathy is still very much behind Reissman as far as I can see. And as far as bringing the profession into disrepute, she was sacked for defending the right of patients to receive the best possible care. I believe that it is the management decision to sack her for doing so that is disreputable. People are entitled to take either view over this but we would do well to remember that this could happen to any one brave enough to stand up for those that are vulnerable. Personally I wouldn’t like to live in such a tyrannical society. And I certainly wouldn’t want to trivialise this situation by comparing it to “the drop of a hat”.

frazzo (06/12/2007 at 21:00)

...and one more thing Giles...

You are not MY voice. However, I believe you have the right to voice your own opinions, whether they be factual or not, without the risk of you loosing your livelihood. It's something called freedom of speech, a linchpin of democracy.

Tony Dekker (06/12/2007 at 21:10)

lets hope you won't ever need the NHS Giles

or maybe you can get the private sector to look after you

Oldhamer, Oldham (06/12/2007 at 23:59)

I find it unbelievable that this nurse was both promoted and fired on the same day. She has every right to speak out if her public funded service is not being run correctly. For so many to feel so strongly, something is badly amiss here? Get this obviously good nurse back to work where she belongs.

Blue Ape With A Drum (07/12/2007 at 10:54)

Good luck to the nurses..you have a good cause,and a lot of support.Giles you are not my voice either,nor the voice of my football team,which has many voices.

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