Mid Yorkshire Unison Strike Fund Gig

Standing firm in Mid Yorks hospitals pay cuts battle

The following article featured on the Socialist Party’s main website is written by Alistair Tice one of our regional organisers.

Admin and clerical Unison and Unite members at Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust have been fighting back against ‘downbanding’ ie pay cuts. But since their three-day strike action ended on 22 November management have still not actually downbanded any staff.

The Trust proposals mean pay cuts of between £1,700 and £2,800 a year on over 350 medical secretaries, receptionists and other admin staff employed at Dewsbury, Pontefract and Pinderfields Hospital in Wakefield. Over 40 posts have also been axed through voluntary redundancy and a ‘Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme’.

The Trust tried to bully workers into signing up to the pay cuts with the threat of dismissal and redundancy over Christmas and New Year but they failed miserably. Two reps have been subjected to disciplinary action in separate incidents on spurious grounds. But the union refused to hold any negotiations with management whilst these two reps face disciplinaries. The first was dropped without any action being taken before Christmas and now the second has also been dropped without going to a disciplinary hearing. The union has been told that no further action will be taken against strike activists. Unison has told the Trust that if any ‘dismiss and reengagement’ letters are sent giving notice of downbandings they will immediately call further escalated strike
action.

Last week a manager sent out letters to some medical secretaries. The full time union official emailed management telling them of the intention to call a week-long strike. Management withdrew the letters saying they were sent out without their knowledge! Unison is beginning a consultative ballot of the rest of the Unison branch members in other departments who are threatened with downbanding. Then they could move to a formal ballot when the timing is right. The correctness of this approach to management’s threats is shown by the Mid Yorks Unison branch recruiting 200-300 new members since the beginning of the dispute.

Mid Yorkshire Health admin staff ballot for strike

Over 500 admin and clerical staff working for Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust are being balloted for strike action.

The strike is against the Trust’s plans to make up to 40 staff redundant and “down band” ie cut the pay of over 200 others. The Trust is trying to save £16 million in a desperate attempt to break even and achieve Foundation Trust status by 2014. Predictably the Trust board has opted to reduce staff numbers and cut the pay of some of its lowest paid and mainly female workers.

The workers being balloted include medical secretaries, waiting list coordinators, cancer admin and reception staff working at Dewsbury, Pinderfields and Pontefract hospitals and clinics across the district.

If implemented, the pay cuts would be between £1,700 and £2,500 a year. The 25 redundancies in the Medical Secretarial department would have a direct impact on the service to the patients and have been opposed by consultants in some departments. Despite many requests from the trade unions the Trust has still to release the Clinical Impact Assessment it has carried out during the so-called consultation process.

Overwhelming support for action

If the Trust thought that it would have an easy time attacking the terms and conditions of these low paid women they have been shown to be mistaken. Over 150 attended a lobby of the Trust HQ prior to a negotiating meeting in August and in a Unison consultative ballot they voted by 95% for strike action and by 98% for action ‘short of strike’ action!

The anger of the workers has been strengthened by the revelation that while it was demanding job and pay cuts the Trust has spent over £3 million on private management consultants including £2.5 million to Ernst and Young since December last year.

Ernst and Young has been part of the Admin and Clerical review which recommended the job losses and pay cuts – no doubt in order to justify their inflated fees. Unison has called for the removal of Ernst and Young from the Trust and is demanding no compulsory redundancies and the withdrawal of the down-bandings. We are also calling for the nationalisation of the Mid Yorkshire PFI scheme which costs the Trust £40 million a year.

The ballot ends on 19 October and if the vote is yes the strike action will take place in early November.

Adrian O’Malley, Secretary, and Dave Byrom, Chair, of Unison, Mid Yorkshire Health (personal capacity)

This post as been cross posted from www.socialistparty.org.uk with photo’s taken by Iain Dalton, Socialist Party Regional Organiser.

NHS Admin staff outside the Trust HQ

NHS Admin staff say “No Pay Cuts, No Redundancy”

NHS Admin staff say “No to Down – Banding”

Speakers and NHS admin staff

38 Degrees Poses The NHS Question…

38 Degrees, a UK non-profit, progressive, political activism organisation has asked the question that is probably on many of our hearts and our minds, What do we do next, regarding the NHS. An e-mail has been sent out to members asking whether we should continue to fight for it, or move on to other pressing issues.

Now, in this moment of disappointment, we need to decide what we do next. Shall we carry on our work to protect the NHS? Do we want to keep working together to slow down the changes and reduce the damage to our health service? Or is it time to move on and focus on other issues?

The Socialist Party want to keep up the fight for our NHS, and will be voting Yes for 38 Degrees to continue their action in its defence. We believe that further action needs to be on a national level which is built for by the trade unions and any demonstrations should be a precursor to industrial action.

Large NHS Vigil, But No Way Forward to Defeat the Bill Offered

Reblogged from Leeds Socialist Party:

Over 60 doctors, nurses, health trade unionists and service users gathered outside the Leeds General Infirmary on the evening of Monday 19th March to hold a candlelight vigil for the National Health Service as the hugely controversial Health & Social Care bill is debated in Parliament.

Michael Johnson, Hyde Park & Headingley Socialist Party

Despite the huge anger and passion amongst those gathered to continue to fighting the bill for as long as it takes this wasn’t reflected in the vigil itself.

Read more… 198 more words

A warning about Labour in a piece about an NHS Vigil by the Leeds branch of the Socialist Party.

Unison’s 20 Year Countdown to NHS Chaos

Mid Yorkshire Unison – NHS Leaflet

Keep Our NHS Public

Remploy workers fight privatisation

Pontefract hospital: army withdrawn – now kick out PFI!