East London rally rages at NHS cuts and defends union rep

Dozens joined the rally outside the board meeting on Thursday

More than 50 members of the Unite union rallied in front of the offices of the NHS East London Foundation Trust (ELFT) on Thursday.

They were there to oppose the trust’s plans to push through £24.9 million in cuts.

As the board meeting started, they were met with chants of “No ifs, no buts, no NHS cuts!”

The trust’s plans would mean fewer services on offer across NHS sites in Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets in London, as well as Bedford and Luton. And they will mean 330 job losses.

Stuart Gordon, branch chair of Unite ELFT, told Socialist Worker that the cuts had not come out of nowhere.

“The £24.9 million in cuts this year comes on top of £70 million over the last two. And they’ve told us that will cut 330 jobs. But they’ve not told us where these cuts will be made,” he said. 

“So when we look at their plans, we have to ask, what does any of this actually mean? We don’t know. And they won’t tell us,” he explained.

There is one redundancy that the workers are definitely aware of.

“Our union branch secretary, Mark Dunne, has been handed his redundancy notice,” said Stuart. 

“They reorganised his department, and his was the one post they thought they could do without. So, that’s a fairly straightforward case of trade union victimisation.”

Mark addressed the rally, to chants of “What’s disgusting? Union busting!”

He pointed out that his redundancy was part of a bigger picture.

“What’s going on with me is a barometer for what’s going on in the trust, and the NHS, as a whole.

“In my 25 years of working for the NHS, these are the worst cuts I’ve ever seen. And it’s all happening under a Labour government.

“And if you want to see how bad it’s already gotten, we’ve now got corridor care.

“We’ve only started to hear about it, but the information we’ve heard already is scary. We’re now installing oxygen in corridors.

“We’re hiring nurses for corridors. And more recently I heard that estates were asked to put dimmer switches in corridors so patients could get some sleep. It’s shocking.”

The workers were joined by representatives from Greenwich and Bexley and Watford Trades Union Councils, as well as supporters from the CWU and Unison unions and campaign groups Keep Our NHS Public and the Southwark Pensioners Action Group.

A CWU member from south London told Socialist Worker, “We’re seeing privatisation creep into the NHS, and it’s something that has to be resisted.

“Because we know what happens when public services are privatised. You only have to look at what happened with our water, with companies like Thames Water. Is that what we want for the NHS?”

A spokesperson for Hackney Keep Our NHS Public argued that the fight against privatisation needed to be bigger and broader.

“In Hackney, we’re fighting to get Palantir out of the Homerton Hospital. And we’re working with Hackney Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Hackney Coalition Against Palantir to do that,” they said. 

“We’ve got further action planned at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and at Unite branches across the region,” Stuart said.

“Our hope is that, with actions like this one today, and others in the future, that we can call Andy Burnham’s Labour government out, and force them to change course,” he added.