Esneft health workers are on strike against privatisation (Photo: Unison Eastern)
Strikers fighting privatisation of their jobs in Essex and Suffolk are set to escalate their strike dramatically.
Facilities workers in the Unison union at East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust (Esneft) are planning to walk out from Monday 25 November until Friday 13 December—a whopping five weeks of strike.
Unison rep Matt Prior told Socialist Worker, “The gloves are really off now. The board are meeting behind closed doors on 5 December to make their final decision.
“If they decide to privatise us, then we are going on all out strike for the whole of December, right into the middle of ‘winter pressures’.”
That announcement will terrify the bosses that have told strikers their jobs are already as good as gone.
But the news also has implications for the strikers, and the wider union movement. According to strikers, Esneft management have already tried to use temporary labour to break the strike—despite this being illegal.
They will almost certainly try the same tactics again. There will need to be serious picketing to stop any potential scabbing operation. A long period of action will also mean some hardship for those on strike.
For both of these reasons it is vital that the wider trade union movement steps up. The strikers’ Unison branch needs to be inundated with donations, messages of support and requests for speakers.
More than that, health workers and others from across London and the east of England must prepare to make their way to the picket lines. This is a vital strike that has implications for trusts all over England.
Some 200 healthcare support workers at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Foundation Trust were set to walk out this Wednesday for a three-day strike.
The Unison members are part of an ongoing fight by workers to be paid correctly for the clinical work they do, in addition to providing patients’ personal care. Mis-banding has cost the workers around £2,000 a year. And the union is demanding back pay to 2018.
Bosses have so far only insulted the workers with offers of back pay to January 2023. Strikes across England have so far helped Unison win far greater settlements.
Pickets are planned each day outside Lister Hospital’s main entrance, Coreys Mill Lane, Stevenage SG1 4AB. This Wednesday, 7am to 10am; Thursday and Friday 12 noon to 3pm.
Strikers at Manchester mental health early intervention team struck for a third day on Monday. The dispute, which involves Unison and Unite members, centres on management’s failure to ensure a properly staffed service.
Picket lines were again widely supported by workers, service users’ groups and campaigners.
Unite rep and clinical psychologist John Mulligan told Socialist Worker, “Mental health services over the past few years have been appalling. The ratio of staff to service users has always been problematic and the quality of service that our patients receive is awful.
“We had been trying to avoid strikes—we’ve raised concerns, we’ve done audits, we’ve made representations on behalf of our service users.
“But nothing has changed, and nobody seems to be listening. We trying to get the politicians, the commissioners and the senior executives locally to make representations to the government and try and reverse this.”
Strikers say they are hopeful that a new deal will emerge at a meeting between unions and management this week. But they also insist that they are prepared to carry on striking.
Thanks to Karen Reissmann for assisting with this report
A staffing crisis in the NHS
Health workers set to strike across four Manchester hospitals
Bus workers rejected an offer and came back out
