To all friends and supporters,
300 staff employed by private contractor Sodexho at Glasgow Royal Infirmary
struck for 2 days this week in pursuit of a pay claim, including the demand of
restoration of full NHS Whitley equivalent Terms and Conditions, £5 hour
minimum wage, 5% or £1000, 35 hour week; abolishing the 2 tier workforce. Our members currently earn £4.20- £4.67 hour, with minimal sick pay, no shift allowances, time 1⁄4 only for overtime etc., All of their conditions were hived off for profit for Sodexho. Their Chief executive, Pierre Bellon, has an estimated personal wealth of £1.3 billion.
Sodexho, a multinational company who profit from private prisons, detention
centres as well as hospitals and other public services across the world,
cynically planned in advance to try and undermine the strike with scab labour
from across Britain. They flew people from Liverpool and Ipswich as well as
other areas in England. Some were from Fife and Gleneagles. They were put up in
Hotels and paid £10 hour, well over double the pay of our members. We are
reliably informed that quite a number came from the Liverpool Women's Hospital
particularly. We have evidence that many of the scabs had no NHS experience,
food hygiene certificates or other relevant training. We raised serious Health
& Safety and security concerns. Scabs with no means of identification were put on security duty!
Despite massive efforts by Sodexho to nullify the Strike, they failed
miserably. We ensured that many scabs were unsuccessful in entering the
hospital. Indeed we believe that some who had entered on Tuesday refused to go
back on Wednesday. We were approaching 100% successful in persuading delivery
drivers with non essential goods not to cross the picket line.
Our Branch Health & Safety Officer was refused the right to inspect the new
build A & E dept. after it was opened and used as access for scabs. This
despite the fact it had no fire extinguishers or flushing toilets and were
clearly putting people at risk. She and 2 other Stewards were escorted from the
building by police. I, being the Branch secretary, was denied access.
If the dispute is not settled, we will be on strike on 6th., 7th., 8th. August
again. We need your physical, moral and financial support. If your area has
Sodexho as an employer, please ensure they are exposed for the exploitative,
bullying and anti union company they are. Make sure any workplaces and
communities scabs have come from are aware of what is happening here. Please
adopt whatever strategies in your area you think will help in solidarity with
us.
If you can attend our picket lines in support, we would be very grateful.
Picketing is 24 hours with emphasis on early morning (5am onwards!!). Send your
messages of support and donations to:
Cheques payable to; The Strike/ hardship Fund,
C/o Kathy McLean, Treasurer,
UNISON North Glasgow Hospitals Branch,
Cuthbertson Building,
Glasgow Royal Infirmary
G4 OSF
With your help we can defeat this company.
All the best in solidarity,
Carolyn Leckie, Branch Secretary,
on behalf of North Glasgow Hospitals Branch