Around 200 Unison members picketed Bradford Royal Infirmary on the first day of the week long strike against the transfer of estates and facilities staff to a Wholly-owned subsidiary.
Iain Dalton, Socialist Party West Yorkshire Organiser
Many of the staff on strike have worked for a decade or more in the NHS. Some catering staff on the picket line had had the experience of being contracted out before, an experience they weren’t keen to repeat after being part of a two-time workforce before being brought back into the NHS a little over a decade ago.
That Unison is taking sustained action also encouraged non-union members to join the strike with several previously unorganised workers on the picket lines.
Strikers weren’t only angry about the proposed transfer, some workers complained about short hours contracts and the dependence they then had on having to work extra hours at the management’s discretion to make ends meet.
The link between this attack and the wider cuts to and privatisation of the NHS was clear to staff, as placards on the picket line such as “Hunt’s Plan – Destroy the NHS” showed.
The support of passing traffic and patients for the strike showed the depths of support for NHS workers.
It is tapping into this support, combined with sustained industrial action that can force the trust back from these proposals.
Bradford Socialist Party 
Reblogged this on ANDY CARRINGTON / PUNK-POET / WEST YORKS.