Privatisation

On Friday 10 June jobcentre workers in Lewisham (South London) demonstrated against the sacking of fixed-term staff taken on early in the pandemic, with the support of other local trade unionists, Labour Party activists and Labour councillors. They also received a statement of solidarity from Lewisham Deptford MP Vicky Foxcroft, which was read out at the protest at Lewisham town hall. The background is the sluggishness of their union PCS nationally in doing anything to help these mainly young workers oppose thousands of job losses across the country. One of the Lewisham reps, Tom Harris...

The HRT treatment shortages and the record waiting lists show the NHS increasingly unable to provide a basic public health system covering the entire population. Why is there so little political noise about this? The quiet is possible only because of silence and stillness from the labour movement, the trade unions and Labour. Stats in the Financial Times ( 28 April) should shatter any complacency. • Thirty years ago the share of GDP spent on “out of pocket” health costs was less than 1% here, over 2% in the US. Now it is almost level, about 2%. • Since 2010, paid-for health costs as a share of...

The Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) security guards in London held a rally on Friday 29 April, their 50th day of strike action. Supporters from across the labour movement came together to celebrate their brave and undeterred action, despite the draconian injunction that remains in place. The rally was held in a small park near the workplace due to the court order criminalising any amplified music, shouting, or “vigorous dancing” outside the hospital. Half a dozen cops watched; there is no attempt to hide that these workers are up against the state as well as their employer. The attempts to...

Cleaners on West Coast, employed by outsourced contractor Atalian Servest, struck again on 9-10 April. The cleaners have struck several times previously, in the face of a mounting cost-of-living crisis. They earn just £9.68 per hour, below the Living Wage Foundation’s calculations for a real living wage of £9.90 outside of London, and £11.05 in it. Even those levels are probably conservative estimates. RMT is right to have demanded a £15/hour minimum in its strikes across multiple TOCs where cleaners are employed by Churchill. RMT is also demanding full occupational sick pay. Research by the...

Outsourced security workers at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) resumed strikes on Friday 1 April, with further strikes planned every Friday throughout the month. The workers are striking to win parity with NHS workers’ terms and conditions. Following a successful struggle by GOSH cleaners, security staff are now the last remaining outsourced workers at the hospital. Picketing remains restricted by a court injunction secured by GOSH, which means workers are only able to picket opposite, not directly outside, the hospital. Striking security guard Erica said: “GOSH trustees hope to...

I start my shift at 0700. There is already a queue of four ambulances outside A&E when we get there with our first patient an hour later. The queueing used to start mid afternoon as the department filled up but often now the backlog hasn’t been cleared overnight, so it’s all day. It’s routine now to log your position in the queue when you arrive and then sit waiting. Only an hour outside in the car park on this occasion. The next time we get to the hospital there are eight ambulances. A three hour wait just to get through the front door. The patient we are with has severe dementia and...

We need to learn from the result of our consultative ballot over cost-of-living issues. We will be able to break the data down to workplace and branch levels, and the places with higher rates of return will give us an indication of where we have stronger organisation. Around 70,000 members took part in the ballot, but that includes those who voted electronically and postally, as we have some members for whom we don’t have email addresses. As can be imagined, amongst those who voted electronically we had a higher turnout. It’s clear we didn’t sufficiently energise our activist base in this...

Security guards at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) will strike every Friday throughout April, from 1 April, as they continue their fight for parity with NHS workers’ terms and conditions. The workers concluded a six-week strike, the longest continuous strike in NHS history, on 18 March. A rally on 17 March was addressed by numerous union activists, as well as Labour MPs John McDonnell and Apsana Begum. Begum has also been prominent in supporting the recent successful strikes of outsourced workers at Barts NHS Trust, which is based in her constituency of Poplar and Limehouse, which won...

Security guards at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) are continuing their six-week-long strike to demand parity with NHS workers’ terms and conditions. The United Voices of the World (UVW) union plans a further strike rally at 12 pm on Friday 17 March, at Queens Square, WC1N. GOSH cleaners, also UVW members, also planned a two-day strike from 11 March, after GOSH management appeared to stall on a prior commitment to bring them into direct employment. The cleaners’ strike was called off after bosses guaranteed the cleaners would be moved onto NHS contracts from 1 April. The cleaners’...

Two weeks of strike action by Serco workers at the Barts NHS Trust in London have ended with a major victory. The strike, with big noisy picket lines and several well-supported demonstrations, moved Serco and the trust from a “1% and not a penny more” position to a 3% pay rise backdated to April 2021 plus £400. More importantly the strike ended contracting out of porters, cleaners and patient food staff across the Bart’s NHS Trust. In-housing was the key demand of the strike. These services have been contracted out across the Trust for years, and in Whipps Cross, Newham and Mile End Hospitals...