By Andy Ford, NHS Unite rep
Low paid, out-sourced NHS workers: cleaners, porters, security staff and domestics in Whiston Hospital on Merseyside staged an inspirational rally on Wednesday 28th August to celebrate and consolidate their solid strike action for equal pay – equal with NHS workers at the same hospital doing the same type of work.
Around 300 workers, Unison members, were packed in to the Rainhill ex-Services club on Warrington Road. They had just completed picket duty on day-2 of their strike against the multinational Compass corporation who are refusing to lift their pay from £8.21 to £9.03 per hour to match the NHS rate. They do not get evening or weekend shift pay and also are excluded from the NHS sick pay scheme. And yet they are vital to the running of the hospital.
First speaker was Paula Barker, regional convenor for the union. Paula gave a strong left-wing speech, pointing out that Compass made £1.7 billion in profit globally last year, yet will not dip into their profits to pay their workers fairly. To great applause she told her Unison members that “Compass are a disgrace. They should not even be in the NHS. You have sacrificed two days pay to tell them that you WILL NOT be walked over!”
Labour’s pledge to reverse NHS privatisation
Pointing to the number of children present (the workforce is predominantly female), she said, “This Tory government don’t want our young people to have political education. Well the best education they can get is here and on the picket line!” When she mentioned a Labour government pledged to reverse NHS privatisation, a section of the workers burst into “Oh Jeremy Corbyn”, and she finished by telling the workers that “Unison are not going anywhere! We are going to win this dispute.”
Next speaker was Roger McKenzie, Unison Assistant General Secretary, who made a fiery speech, pledging the support of Dave Prentis, the Unison NEC and the union’s 1.4 million members. He pointed out that the chief negotiator for Compass has chosen this time to go on holiday, demonstrating the company’s contempt for their workforce. Their managers are paid £100,000 plus, they do not understand what it is like to juggle the red bills. “They don’t care” he said “But we do!” He pointed to Unison’s recent success in the Birmingham care workers dispute. “We won, by standing together. There is no easy road except to stand and fight. The only knights in shining armour are in this room” he said, to great applause.
A good thing Unison have done in this dispute is to bring rank and file stewards from other hospitals with the same problem to speak at St Helens and Whiston. The next speaker was one of the stewards from Blackpool Hospital who was warmly received for a heartfelt contribution in which she rightly said “It should be one NHS. I am proud of you in Whiston. Solidarity!”
Another steward from the Liverpool Women’s Hospital also brought solidarity and told how they had won their dispute by united action. “We will win” she declared, a chant taken up enthusiastically by the crowd.
The two MPs who spoke, Conor McGinn from St Helens North, and Marie Rimmer, St Helens South, somewhat missed the mark, it has to be said. Conior McGinn, who was parachuted into the seat as part of some NEC backroom deal, lost the audience by telling an involved story about his son visiting a museum exhibit of the moon landings. He treated the event like a debating chamber rather than a strike rally. Marie Rimmer, former leader of St Helens council, spent a fair bit of time praising the hospital chief executive and management team and the hospital’s place in the NHS league tables.
Labour MPs’ speeches less political than trade union officers
Ironically both MPs gave speeches that were less political than the trade unionists, limiting themselves to pledges of support and not getting into renationalisation of the NHS. To my recollection, neither mentioned of them even Jeremy Corbyn. But even this is ‘progress’ compared to the Blair/Brown years, when Labour MPs would routinely snub strikes, let alone calling for the unions to win.
It is certainly an important strike to win – thousands of NHS jobs were out-sourced to rapacious private companies, often Tory Party donors, under Compulsory Competitive Tendering in the 1980s. It was supposed to create efficiency, but the National audit Office found that the biggest single element of the savings was from the lost pensions of the out-sourced workers. And patients paid the price too, as MRSA entered our hospitals. One domestic was often forced to do the work of 4, 5 or even 6 former staff, and whereas each ward used to have its own cleaner under the control of a senior nurse, in the new world they were shifted around from pillar to post.
At one NHS lab I worked at, the contract cleaners were not even given cleaning materials – they had to forage for them from the NHS stock. Across the NHS, detergents and bleach were often watered down or the cheapest available was used. The result was terrible – MRSA went from causing a few rare deaths per year in the 1980s to 800 in 2002.
Labour under Tony Blair effectively did NOTHING to end NHS privatisation and even encouraged it more. Now, under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour is pledged to end and reverse it – the result would be better conditions and pay for hardworking staff, better care for patients, and cleaner hospitals. The party must honour this pledge. More immediately, the entire movement needs to rally round the valiant cleaners and domestics of Whiston Hospital to ensure a famous victory.
September 2, 2019
