[COHSE THE saga of this year's NHS main…]

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COHSE THE saga of this year's NHS main health unions outbiddin! abdicate from any leadershi] members to their own devices.

COHSE leaders were the first in the field. They graciously "authorised" local branches . to undertake Executive has decided to conduct a ballot of its branches asking them to reject the 4% pay offer and indicate whether or not they favour "some form" of industrial action.

The Executive itself does not suggest any forms of action - and proposes to leave it all up to individual branches or even individual hospitals and sections of members to decide what to do.

As one official pointed out, "this could mean action varying trom area lo ared, hospital to hospital".

The only form of action NUPE is ruling out is all-out strike action without emergency cover.

But the whole approach by the Executive is guaranteed to fragment, confuse and demoralise health workers, who in a successiul ..we of 1 hour token strikes mittees would convince health workers that they can win. Other sections of workers - lab technicians and clerical workers - could well then follow suit.

Instead NUPE leader Alan Fisher has done his best to persuade his members that any action will drag on for months, warning that:

"It may not just be a spring offensive. It may well be a summer of discontent"

Yet urgent action is needed. In particular the unions must move swiftly if they are to prevent yet another miserable defeat on nurses' pay which could split the ranks before the fight even starts. Last year both NUPE and COHSE rejected the government's final offer - only to be outvoted on the staff side" by leaders of the "professional body" the collar and technical staff face the same pay squeeze.

But in this "do it yourself" pay fight, it is left up to the rank and file to kick their leaders into a struggle.

To this end a lobby has been called of the TUC Health Services Committee which meets on April 29. It is there that union leaders will formulate their plans in the light of the NUPE ballot.

Already, workers in at least one hospital - Littlemore Hospital in Oxford -have voted for a one-day strike on that day to pile pressure on their leaders for all-out action. Other health workers should follow suit.

Let the demand ring out long and loud from NUPE, COHSE and other health union branches for all-out strike action with emergency cover as the way to win the claim.