Royal Bolton Hospital Support Workers Strike for a Living Wage

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

Royal Bolton Hospital Support Workers Strike for a Living Wage

HWF Organises Open Discussion on Agenda for Change

Met Workers Gather to Save Jobs

Communists against War and Globalisation

Statement of Solidarity with Cuba

Over 150 portering and domestic staff, members of the public services union Unison, at Bolton Royal Hospital, began a three-day strike action on Monday June 23 in their struggle for a living wage.

The workers are employed by Danish-owned contract cleaning company ISS Mediclean. In common with similar workers in London and the North of England, they voted overwhelmingly to take strike action following failed pay talks with the private contractor which have gone on over several months.

Andy Gill, Regional Officer for Unison, said: "Staff employed by this company are no longer prepared to put up with pay rates and employment conditions that are significantly worse than those of their hospital staff colleagues that they work alongside. This is a classic two-tier workforce problem which leaves many staff under-paid and under-valued". He went on to say: "It is regrettable that neither the Bolton Hospital Trust nor the private contractor have been able to meet the reasonable demands made in this current pay claim. Common sense and goodwill could have resolved this dispute but it seems that they would rather blame each other than resolve the problem".

Currently domestic workers employed by the contractor earn £4.47 an hour and porters earn £4.61 an hour. The claim was lodged in 2002 and was for £5.00 for domestics and £5.60 for porters. These lowest paid staff work unsocial hours with no extra shift allowances and no overtime allowance, while their legal entitlement to only 20 days’ holiday includes bank holidays. The two-tier workforce, where the most exploited workers are contracted out, means they are denied the same pay and conditions as equivalent NHS staff.

Further strike actions are planned for June 30, and July 1 and 2.

Bolton Hospitals NHS Trust said it was "extremely concerned" about the strike and said that care in certain areas would be reduced at the hospital. ISS Mediclean is due to bring in other staff in order to ensure the hospital while the strike continues.

An ISS Mediclean spokesman said it had offered a 3.23% rise backdated to April, in line with national pay guidelines. The spokesman added that the current union demand for porters equates to more than 21% and is equivalent to a similar role being carried out on central London, without mentioning, even if his remarks were accurate, that the workers’ demand cannot be measured in percentage terms but is for a living wage, and that a modest percentage rise in very little remains very little.

On Thursday, June 26, the Health Workers Forum is organising an open discussion on the Agenda for Change under the slogan: "Health Workers Must Set their Own Worth!" It is to take place at Brinkburn Community Centre, Harton Lane, South Shields.

Agenda for Change, the new pay system for the NHS which has been the result of four years of negotiations between the government and national trade union negotiators, is likely to be introduced at 12 implementers' sites when this national negotiating body meets in June and the health unions report back on their ballots. The Society of Radiographers voted against and RCN for Agenda for Change. Two unions, Unison and amicus will only ballot their members on whether they accept or reject Agenda for Change next year, but both unions voted for the 12 implementers' sites to proceed.

The publication of the Health Workers’ Forum, Safeguarding the Future of the NHS, writes: "It is said that Agenda for Change is a completely new pay system, with new terms and conditions and that it had to come because Whitley, the present pay system is ‘out of date’ and ‘no longer sustainable’. Whilst Agenda for Change is a new pay system it cannot be said that it is a modern pay system, or one that reflects the needs of health workers today, or is the product of a modern society. A modern way of doing things would not talk about ‘winners and losers’ in which 80,000 health workers are estimated even by government figures as losers either with lower pay or with an extended working week. It would not be to get health workers to vote against each on the basis of who wins and who loses, or to attach a pay offer to acceptance of Agenda for Change when clearly the modernisation of the pay system and the pay rise are two separate issues. But even more to the point a modern pay system cannot be achieved without involving health workers in their vast numbers, across the whole team, and in their many specialties. The fact that this has not happened with Agenda for Change can be seen in the extremely low turnouts in the trade union ballots. Of the biggest unions only around 20% of members took part in the ballot in Unison and around 30% of members in the RCN."

The publication continues: "Agenda for Change is supposed to be based on ‘equal pay for equal work’. But a recent Tribunal assessment in Cumbria, using the Equal Pay Act, compared the lowest grade staff nurse to an estates officer. Equal pay in this case is £26,000 per annum, nearly £10,000 more than the lowest grade staff nurse presently receives. Agenda for Change will band all trained staff nurses between £17,000-£22,000 per annum. In fact, Agenda for Change will make it harder for nurses, or any other health worker, to make equal pay claims under the Act. Clearly, part of this ‘Agenda for Change’ is the government's desire to openly flout the law, which it does when it suits it, yet they expect workers to abide by laws which are aimed at shackling their resistance and sabotaging their struggles for better pay and conditions."

The article concludes: "What should be recognised is that in any truly modern society health workers must have the right to set their own worth, taking into account the wealth that workers produce, the service they as health workers provide to society and their concrete conditions. This is the agenda that health workers must set out on and fight for in response to this situation."

Hundreds of workers at the Birmingham based train maker Metro Cammell attended a mass meeting on Tuesday in an attempt to save the factory from closure.

The French engineering transnational Alstom had announced earlier this month that it would stop building trains at the Washwood Heath factory after its current contract to manufacture the tilting Pendolino trains for Virgin ends next July. Up to 1,900 jobs are at stake.

The workers’ organisations are discussing fighting the closure as they fought against that of Rover three years ago.

Tom Keogh of amicus said, "The cry from the meeting is that we're not leaving. We will be lobbying the French owners in Paris on July 2 in terms of job losses. Birmingham is not a small place, it's a major, major employer in the area. We're not going anywhere, we might be down but we're not out."

The spirit of the workers is to take the initiative in their fight once again against the agenda of the multinationals in the global marketplace. To build a workers’ opposition to this agenda is what is being called for.

A report by the New Communist Party of Britain in New Worker Online

Over 60 communist and workers' parties met last week to discuss the globalisation and the anti-war movement in Athens at a conference organised by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE). These conferences, organised over the past six years by the KKE, have become an important focus for the exchange of views between communist parties all around the world on the capitalist crisis and the mass movements. This year was no exception.

NCP leader Andy Brooks and Central Committee member Richard Bos represented the Party at the conference that took place on 19 and 20 June. The NCP's contribution to the debate focused on the current situation in Britain, the demand for an end to the occupation of Iraq; support for the resistance together with support for the Palestinian Arabs' struggle for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.

The NCP delegation had an exchange of views with the KKE and discussions with a number of other parties. Communist and workers' parties from Europe, the Americas, the Arab world and Asia were represented including the ruling parties of Cuba, Democratic Korea and Vietnam. Twenty other parties, including the Communist Party of China, sent fraternal messages.

At the conference, held in Athens University, delegates roundly condemned the imperialist war against Iraq led by the United States, Britain and Australia. Many speakers stressed that the peoples of the world now face the potential threat of global domination of world capitalism led by the United States.

Many communists warned of the danger to world peace posed by Nato's new aggressive stance, guided by the doctrine of pre-emptive war and the revived theory of the "world policeman" for imperialism.

Other speakers warned of the militarisation of the European Union and the ambitions of French and German imperialism.

But they also noted the international mobilisation that had taken place before the imperialist attack took place and the fact that this movement was continuing to develop and campaign for peace.

The hostile acts of American imperialism against Cuba and Democratic Korea were condemned and the participants reiterated their support for the struggle of the Palestinian people. Israel's policies were the source of violence and instability in the Middle East and the communists demanded the unconditional withdrawal of all Israeli troops from the occupied Arab territories and the return of all the refugees in accordance with past UN resolutions.

Several speakers spoke of a new militancy in the labour and trade union movement. The need to develop action in the workplace to further strengthen class forces in the union movement was crucial.

Delegates expressed the need to continue and develop the work of these international communist conferences to broaden the discussion and exchange of views on the transformation of society and the prospect of socialism under present conditions.

The need for communist solidarity with specific campaigns was stressed including demands:

· for the release of the five Cuban patriots imprisoned in the United States;

· to mobilise against the imperialist plan for neo-liberal reconstruction of the economies in Latin America and the Caribbean along with its armed wing, the "Colombia Plan" which aims to isolate and eliminate the Colombian guerrilla movement and subvert the legal and democratic government of Venezuela;

· to co-ordinate actions against the plans of US imperialism and the EU to subjugate the economies of the Arab countries;

· to undertake active initiatives to co-ordinate the action of communist parties against capitalist globalisation, taking into consideration the new and growing movements against the policies of imperialist governments and multinational enterprises.

Solidarity resolutions in support of Cuba, Democratic Korea and the Iranian people were also passed.

After the conference ended, many delegations stayed on in Greece to take part in the KKE's demonstration against the EU summit in the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki.

Athens, 20 June 2003

The following parties participating in the meeting of Communist and Workers parties that took place in Athens on the June 19-20, 2003, express their solidarity with the Cuban people and its heroic struggle for the defence of national independence and sovereignty; the socialist system of Cuba and the achievements of the Cuban people, despite the intensification of the blockade and imperialist hostility.

This campaign against the Cuban socialist revolution and its achievements is led by the Bush Administration, which calls for an international crusade for the overthrow of the socialist regime using as a pretext the liberation of the Cuban people and the supposed restoration of human rights . In this campaign the EU also participates actively, now, more than ever before by subordinating to the policy of the Bush Administration, to the pressure and extortion against Cuba.

Faced with this coordinated attack and considering the possibility of a military aggression against Cuba, the participants in the meeting declare their readiness, in solidarity with the longsuffering people of Cuba :

-To develop in their countries a broad and effective campaign of solidarity with the Cuban People, defending it against the escalating imperialist aggressiveness

-To denounce the unjust practices of the economic, commercial and fiscal blockade against Cuba; practices that violate elementary human rights

-To further project in their countries the achievements of the Cuban people through political and cultural manifestations and to intensify bilateral exchanges and visits.

-To demand from the governments that follow a hostile policy towards Cuba the lifting of all restrictions in the bilateral relations, and which must be developed on the basis of mutual respect and non-intervention in internal affairs.

-To intensify protests against the unjust imprisonment of the 5 Cuban patriots in the US, for anti-terrorist activities, and for the right of their relatives to obtain visas in order to be able to visit them

Endorsed by:

Communist Party of Albania
Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism
Communist Party of Armenia
Communist Party of Australia
Communist Party of Austria
Democratic Progressive Tribune Bahrein
Workers Party of Belgium
Communist Party of Brazil
Communist Party of Britain
New Communist Party of Britain
Bulgarian Communist Party «Georgi Dimitrov»
Communist Party of Canada
Colombian Communist Party
Communist Party of Cuba
AKEL-Cyprus
Communist Party of Bohemia Moravia
Communist Party in Denmark
Communist Party of Denmark
Communist Party of Egypt
Communist Party of Finland
Communist Party of Greece
Hungarian Workers Party
Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Tudeh Party of Iran
Iraqi Communist Party
The Workers Party of Ireland
Communist Party of Ireland
Communist Party of Israel
Communist Refoundation Party
Party of the Italian Communists
Workers Party of Korea
Socialist Party of Latvia
Lebanese Communist Party
Communist Party of Luxembourg
Popular Socialist Party of Mexico
Party of the Communists of Mexico
New Communist Party of the Netherlands
Communist Party of Norway
Portuguese Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
Union of Communist Parties-CPSU
Communist Party of Russian Federation
Communist Workers Party of Russia - Party of Communists of Russia (RKRP-RPC)
Communist Party of Slovakia
Communist Party of Spain
Communist Party of Peoples of Spain
Sudanese Communist Party
Communist Party of Sweden
Syrian Communist Party
Syrian Communist Party
Communist Party of Turkey
The Party of Labour (EMEP)-Turkey
Communist Party of Ukraine
Union of Communists of Ukraine
Communist Party, USA
Communist Party of Vietnam
New Communist Party of Yugoslavia