[Эct3 NCAS E? WIT H ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL…]

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Эct3 NCAS E? WIT H

ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL DETAILED plans are now being made to defy management's plans to close two more wards, reduce casualty facilities and further the run down towards closure of St Mary's Hospital, Harrow Road, London W9.

The feeling for a fight among the workforce has never been stronger. Auxiiar! * nurses meeting last week decided to retuse to allow 15 of their number to be transferred to other posts, and to stand firm and stay at their jobs.

Group And the sisters will not agree to meet management individually to hear their plans for redeployment. They have shown a very encouraging degree of solidarity and have acted together as a group.

Meanwhile a meeting called of consultants in the hospital and local GPs to assess the amount of support for providing the necessary medical cover for patients turned out very positively. Although the turn-out of consultants was poor, the GPs gave enthusiastic support to the fight to defend health provision in the District.

It was even revealed that years ago when the idea of closing W9 was first mooted, many of them had signed petition offering their services to provide emergency cover in the hospital.

They are talking of organising a statement to the press highlighting the attack on local provision being spearheaded by the Minister of Health, and knocking down the idea that it is merely a "rationalisation" of resources.

The patient work which been put into the fight THREAT TO ( to save W9 over the years will now need to be escalated and put into top gear. The magnificent stand of the ambulance workers who have refused to carry out the instruction to stop bringing patients in from 19 October to allow the beds to be emptied must be backed up.

A real picket line will have to be maintained to stop the removal of patients.

In 1980 St. Mary's Hospital Casual Department dealt with more than 38000 people - on average more than HARROW ROAD And the struggle will have to be supported by action from other workers to break any isolation.

The Day of Action needs to provide the starting point for mass involvement and commitment from workers and the local community.

Mary's Hospital, London W9.

DAY OF ACTION against closure Saturday October 3 assemble 11am at the hospital for demonstration.

3pm: rally at the hospital, Ken Livingstone speaking, and Health Minister Gerard Vaughan invited to debate his closure decision.

4.30: Theatre group music.

7.30: Disco (tickets Poster and picture exhibition throughout the day. OPENSHAW is Coronation Street country. On a rain-sodden day, you pass the pub on the corner where a wedding reception is taking place in the saloon bar, the small shop selling everything from Daz and Fairy Snow to cigarettes and pies and sandwiches to take out, and the rows of gloomy terraced houses, to reach the Laurence Scott factory.

The only colour is provided by the "Tony Benn for Deputy' badges that most of the pickets are wearing.

As usual, the convenor Dennis Barry is there on the picket line.

There's nothing extraordinary about . Dennis. He's a quiet and decent man who has worked at Laurence Scotts since the 1940s. When his wife died, he patiently brought up his three sons, and is proud of the fact that they all went to university.

Like millions, he thought a better world had dawned, only to find himself thrown onto the dole queue in his late fifties with little prospect of ever working His natural determination and understanding of Dennis to tne forefront when the speed of events proved too much for former convenor Bob Penchion, and he has carried out the job effectively, taking the cause of the Laurence Scott workers from one end of the country to the other, and learning a lot of lessons in the process.

Had the recent invasion of the factory by 20 armed scabs, who broke through the picket line to remove some of the valuable machinery inside, disheartened the strikers?

Boyd "Look around" , says Dennis. 'You've spoken to them. Everybody involved is more determined than ever. We've been shown how the gaffers never give up. We won't either"

Dennis feels that about that number on our total rota, and the money flowing in has dropped off a little.

I just don't think it's viable at the moment.

"If we pull too many people out of Openshaw, just now, then Mining Supplies boss Snipe can strip the whole factory"

But what about more support from other Man-c chester factories? Wouldn't a few pickets from each provide the potential for a foray across the Pennines?

Dennis replies that support from other workplaces has been good as far as finance and good wishes are concerned, but many senior stewards are reluctant to go further.

Gutless

•Take GEC Openshaw, with its strong tradition and its leading stewards in the CP. They place tremendous importance on whether the dispute is official or not, even in terms of financia support.

"'There's nowt more gutless than the CP faced with a real fight to help another factory. Be careful. Don't go too far. Look to the longer term - you know the guff.

'That's why they are losing members and paper sales.

'The other problem is that it is Boyd and Duffy who are stiffening Snipe and telling him not to negotiate with us locally.

"If they can be turned around in the union, that's our opportunity"

As we talk to some of the

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SUALTY! CASUALTY DEPT

SCOTTS STIT -VN