Health

Health service round-up

04 November 2006
Peterborough and Stamford hospital trust Maintenance workers in Amicus at Peterborough and Stamford hospital trust are being balloted for industrial action over pay.

Strike call over cuts

28 October 2006
Over 150 mental health staff in Manchester have voted unanimously to ballot for strike action if a package of cuts is not dropped.

Labour’s pay insult to health workers

28 October 2006
Health unions have angrily accused chancellor Gordon Brown of intervening in NHS pay talks to force through an effective salary cut.

Demonstrating against the suspension of NHS activist Yunus Bakhsh

21 October 2006
Around 100 trade unionists from the Unison, Amicus, PCS, UCU, NUT, T&G and GMB unions demonstrated outside the meeting room of Newcastle Trusts headquarters on Wednesday of last week. They were protesting at the summary suspension of NHS activist Yunus Bakhsh.

Organising for Fighting Unions: a crucial debate on future of unions

21 October 2006
Last weekend saw another round of demonstrations against NHS cuts, which have provoked protests across the country.

Huntingdon - hospital in top ten faces cuts that will destroy services to the community

14 October 2006
Around 1,000 people attended a rally and march through Huntingdon last Saturday to protest against attempts to impose drastic cuts on the local hospital. The government’s free market policies have left Huntingdon’s Hinchingbrooke hospital with debts of over £24 million.

NHS revolt sweeps across the country

14 October 2006
One thousand marching in Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire. Thousands of demonstrators at Worthing and Southlands, Sussex, linking hands around two hospitals under threat.

A victory for health workers at Whipps Cross in their fight for equality

14 October 2006
Domestics, porters and catering staff working for a private firm at Whipps Cross hospital in Leytonstone, east London, were celebrating victory this week in their battle for equality with colleagues employed by the NHS.

New strike threat in NHS

07 October 2006
The Amicus union is preparing a strike ballot among workers in the NHS blood service to prevent the threatened closure of 14 blood centres. The plans follow two 24-hour strikes in NHS Logistics (see page 5).

NHS Logistics workers strike again over sell-off

07 October 2006
Workers who supply hospitals and GP surgeries across England held a 24-hour strike on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, their second such action.

Epsom in revolt against hospital downgrading

07 October 2006
Thousands marched through the Surrey town of Epsom last Saturday to protest against attempts to downgrade the local hospital.

Now it’s a fight for the soul of the NHS

30 September 2006
The first national strike in the NHS for 17 years began on Thursday of last week. Unison union members at five depots of NHS Logistics - the not for profit agency that supplies hospitals across England - struck for 24 hours in a battle against privatisation.

Health union activist Yunus Bakhsh suspended

30 September 2006
Yunus Bakhsh, a leading activist in the Unison union, has been suspended from his job as a health worker in Newcastle.

‘We are striking to keep the NHS public’

30 September 2006
"Hundreds of Unison members in NHS Logistics have taken part in a national strike to oppose the sell-off of essential public services to DHL - a German parcel courier.

NHS Logistics strike confronts privatisation

23 September 2006
The first national strike in the health service for 18 years began on Thursday evening. The 24-hour strike by 1,000 members of the Unison union at NHS Logistics saw low paid workers in direct confrontation with New Labour’s privatisation policies.