Activists organise for action

A UNISON health activist meeting has been called for Saturday 29 July
in Birmingham, to respond to savage job cuts and ward and hospital
closures throughout the NHS.

Up to 13,000 health service jobs are threatened nationally. Mounting
deficits are used as an excuse to close hospitals and privatise. The
health union leaders have done little or nothing in response. How many
NHS jobs must go before UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis or the TUC
call a demonstration or a strike to defend his members?

The announcement of the privatisation of the NHS commissioning
service, amounting to £64 billion of NHS spending, was a step too far.
It woke the dead at the TUC, who responded with a meeting of health
unions at the TUC.

They’re calling a lobby of MPs for the autumn. Any official action
from the TUC and the unions is welcomed and we have to get thousands
onto the streets on London for the lobby. However, they need to follow
up on that by delivering on their promise of a national demo in the
spring.

But a lobby of MPs isn’t enough to stop the cuts. The NHS’ very
future is at stake. Private health companies are sharpening their knives
to slice off huge parts of the NHS for themselves.

The 29 July meeting aims to mobilise support for the lobby, but also
to campaign to get UNISON and other health unions to organise a
well-publicised – and properly built for – national demonstration in the
autumn. And to support health workers already taking or preparing to
take industrial action at local level to stop the job cuts.

Trade unionists and health campaigners will discuss how to develop
campaigns involving health workers and the community. If you’re a
health worker or NHS community campaigner, come to the 29 July meeting
and unite with us to defend the NHS.