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.

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.

Peter Vasey, called Pete by his friends, died on 17 July at the relatively young age of 54. Born in Batley, West Yorkshire in 1957 to a poor family, he instinctively fought any authority figures who tried to rule his life. He had a very keen and lively sense of humour and was generous to a fault. Much banter took place when he was around and you had to be on the ball not to get caught up in one of his jokes.

A member of the Labour Party Young Socialists and a Militant (forerunner of the Socialist Party) supporter in Batley in the 1980s, he used his artistic talent to good effect. He made a plywood effigy of Tory Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher, with a “Job Destroyer” notice around her neck, which had a good impact in the local campaign against unemployment. He will also be remembered for his adventurous approach. For example, he made a seven foot kite of Lenin to raise fighting fund, then tested it out on Bridlington beach in gusty conditions – terrorising those nearby!

After the defeat of the momentous 1984-85 miners’ strike, however, he lapsed into inactivity but always propounded Marxist ideas, especially those of his beloved Engels.The demoralisation of unemployment blighted his life at this time too and he developed a drink problem. But after years on the dreaded dole
he finally got a job and was determined to never return to the sub-life conditions of unemployment. Proud of the working class he belonged to and never corrupted by the greed of the capitalist system, he was an inspiration, especially to his brother.

Members of the Socialist Party in Leeds and Bradford participated in the discussion at Bradford Trades Council’s public meeting on “LGBT Rights In the Workplace” on Thursday 19 April 2012. Speakers included David Eeles, covenor of the Public and Commerical Services (PCS) union’s LGBT group, and Jake Searles from Bradford Equity, an organisation which teaches awareness of LGBT rights in the workplace.

David spoke from his experience as “a trade unionist who happens to be gay” on the importance of using tools like the 2010 Equality Act to fight against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in the workplace. He stressed the need for all trade unions to have LGBT groups, to recruit more LGBT members, and to spread awarness of gender and sexuality in the labour movement.

David made the point that the attacks on LGBT rights by the Tories are part of a wholesale attack on workers rights, including plans to make unfairly dismissed workers pay extortionate fees to take employers to tribunals. He emphasised that both LGBT and heteroseuxal people should stand together to take on the coalition and it’s savage austerity measures.

“As trade unionists, what damages one of us damages all of us,” said David. “We need to stand together, because it’s only the trade union movement that is going to bring down this coalition government… it isn’t going to be Labour.”

Jake spoke of the need for greater awarness of the needs of LGBT people accessing public services and in the workplace, particularly in a time when these services are being cut and LGBT people are being scapegoated. He offered a range of resources including training courses for awareness of LGBT rights in the workplace. He focussed on the issue of improving education and awareness of the issues of sexuality and gender identity as a way of combatting homophobia and transphobia in all aspects of life.

I made a point about the importance of combatting homophobia and transphobia in the eduction system as well as in the workplace. Jake agreed with me that we need to address the still largely ignored issues of homophobia and transphobia in schools, as sadly little has changed since the repeal of Section 28, a homophobic law brought in by the Thatcher government and repealed under New Labour.

A local trade unionist from one of the teaching unions made a brief contribution about her involvement in the Schools Out project, a small voluntary project run mostly by LGBT teachers, helping to educate children and young people about LGBT rights.

An interesting disucssion followed on a variety of related topics and funds were raised for Bradford LGBT Pride on 26 May 2012, where the Socialist Party hopes to be present again, following our successful intervention last year. We look forward to seeing you there!

Dave Younger
LGBTQI organiser
Leeds and Bradford Socialist Party

Sheffield
Time: Assemble 12.30pm
Place: Outside the Department of Work and Pensions, Steel City House at the junction of West Street, Church Street and Tripit Lane
March to the Town Hall for rally and speeches
Contact: Kevin Hepworth 07976 265630

London
Date: Friday 20th April 2012
Time: Assemble Midday
Place: Outside the Department of Work and Pensions, Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NA
March to Old Palace Yard, Westminster, London, SW1P 3JY for rally with speakers including Gail Cartmail, Unite Assistant General Secretary
Kerry Jenkins 07928 492702

Since 1946 Remploy has supported thousands of disabled people return to work, from ex-service personnel to people born with complex disabilities.

On 7 March 2012 the coalition government announced plans to close 36 of the 54 remaining Remploy sites with compulsory redundancies for 1,752 people. This decision comes just a few days after the government passed the welfare bill, which is to help people in to work. Instead of a commitment to help the most vulnerable people in society, the government is making life worse for them.

Remploy provides real jobs for many hundreds of disabled workers, giving them the confidence and dignity to be active and contributing citizens. Closing the factories will cause real hardship and push many to the back of the dole queue.

The government wants to sell off its Remploy factories. Join Unite in saying save our Remploy.

“If Finbarr Cronin really supports the aims of Youth Fight for Jobs then he should resign from the Liberal Democrats and contest elections on a platform that includes the key demands of Youth Fight for Jobs. This is what Wakefield YFJ activist, Dan Dearden, is doing standing as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition in Pontefract North ward.”