Rob Pettefar, Swindon Socialist Party
At 7am on 16 September, porters, security, cleaners and caterers walked off the job for 48 hours at Swindon’s Great Western Hospital (GWH), in a situation similar to the Barts NHS strike last year.
A deal with NHS staff reached in June 2023 included a one-off payment of £1,655. This has been denied to hospital staff employed by private company Serco. Some told us they were paid the lump sum by mistake, and then were asked to repay it!
The outsourcing company announced profits of £249 million in 2023 and plunged £90 million into share buybacks to boost its share price.
Unison members voted unanimously for strike action. Speaking to the workers, it was clear that it wasn’t just the denial of the lump sum that they were outraged by.
Many have worked at the hospital since at least 2005, outlasting their previous private employer, Carillion. Most are working for £11.44 an hour on day shifts.
There was the feeling from management that they do not work hard – yet at times a single person had been responsible for keeping an entire Covid ward clean. Hospitality and cleaning staff have been asked to take over nursing tasks for no extra pay, and overtime has been cut.
One worker told me how booking holiday time was very difficult and you couldn’t even get time off to go to a funeral. Other workers described how the work was getting more stressful, with timed criteria for how long tasks should take, and no provisions made when one person on a two-person shift is unavailable.
But one thing was clear from all the workers I spoke to: they were determined to win and would strike again if their demands were not met.
