Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/309/12614
From The Socialist newspaper, 19 July 2003
Kick big business out of the NHS
Say No To Poverty Wages
HEALTH WORKERS at Royal Bolton Hospital (RBH) are continuing their fight with ISS Mediclean for a living wage.
Multinational ISS has spent a fortune on scab labour. This has come to nothing, as workers continue strike action.
Hugh Caffrey, Manchester Socialist Party
Speaking tours of strikers and public campaigning have had an excellent response and donations continue to pour in.
The Bolton strikers have been encouraged by the concessions gained from ISS by the Whipps Cross workers (see page 3).
And it now seems that, after refusing to negotiate for weeks, the company is seeking a meeting with the union.
The strikers reported on 13 July: "After nine days of strike action spread over three weeks, our action is beginning to bite, Mediclean managers' tempers are beginning to get frayed.
"Hospital staff are wondering when all this will end and normality will resume... after a meeting of UNISON members involved in the strike last week our resolve was strengthened."
The local press has reported how a Mediclean senior manager was photographed breaking the Hospital Trust's own rules about the spread of infection.
Clinical waste bags were being mixed with laundry bags and ordinary rubbish. These are supposed to be kept separate at all times.
In the past porters have been disciplined for doing the same but ISS Mediclean seem to be making up their own rules. The Hospital Trust are trying to play down this incident, saying due to industrial action, normal standards are not always possible to maintain!
UNISON nationally needs to campaign on behalf of low-paid workers employed in the privatised sections of the health service, linking with the other unions organising these workers.
Support the RBH workers - send donations and messages of support to: UNISON Health Fund, Union Office, Royal Bolton Hospital, Farnworth, Bolton, Lancs BL4 0RJ. See their website: http://strike.antonybrown.com
- End poverty pay.
- End privatisation and profiteering.
- For a fully funded public health service.
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In The Socialist 19 July 2003:
Devon Bus Workers Fight Low Pay
Right Wing Booed Out Of PCS Leadership
Whipps Cross hospital workers: "Where we fight, we win"
Asylum Seekers Fear Repression
Kirklees Nursery nurses: United Action Gave Us Confidence
Fight For Trade Union Rights In Colombia
Socialist Party features
Weapons of mass destruction: A Web Of Lies From Day One
Gay Rights Aren't Only For Bishops
Genetic engineering: Science And Big Business
International socialist news and analysis
Kazakhstan: Foundry workers fight for nationalisation of factory
Africa in Crisis: Development reversed by Capitalism
"Stop The Reform Or We Will Stop The Country"
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