R STANDARD ANNA LUNTS looks at the struggles of the last 10 ye

Scan page 8

In 1970, unofficial strike action was taken by ancillary forkers at the Royal Free and other hospitals in London. In

he same year COHSE nurses at the Leavensdon Psychiatric lospital struck over a range of grievances extending from stafuts - and the fight for w lemands for a 44-hour week.

ach as health workers. rembers' supposed 'passivity' and 'lack of fight' ing levels to conditions in the nurses' homes.

Most of these nurses were from Senegal ad Mauritius and indeed, over the next to years it was those very sections, blacks I women workers, who had been least presented in the official union structures tho were to prove to be the best fighters. i They were at the forefront of demonand picket lines and found eir own ways of organising even in the ice of varying degrees of hostility from inion full-time officials. | Over the next four years, layers of pressed and exploited workers moved to battle. • It is all the more remarkable for the tost complete absence of militant tivity and shop floor organisation in the In the autumn of 1972 unofficial ction was taken by TGWU ancillaries in nstol, and on 27 November the London Hiance of Stewards for Health Workers LASH) an entirely rank and file body •led for one-day strike action and got an precedented response.

Immigrant workers

in the forefront Hundreds of strikers demonstrated outide the DHSS demanding an £8 wage crease, a 35 hour week and four weeks raid holidays.

Again, immigrant workers who made # half to two-thirds of the workforce in zany London hospitals emerged as some the most militant and determined workers.

On 17 December in the face of mounthe rank and file pressure the union leaders - errified of losing their grip on the situkion - called for a one-day strike.

In January 1973, TGWU ancillaries in bristol took all-out strike action for four lay's before being blackmailed back to Fork.

Eventually after a long-winded and bomplicated process of balloting, national leicial action was called including selecme strikes, overtime bans etc.

The half-heartedness of these measmes. the delaying tactics and lack of real tadership meant that by the end of March +9-3 demoralisation began to set in.

The eventual award was woefully adequate but the NHS could never be same again.

A long history of passivity and servitude had been decisively broken with and the effects of the ancillaries' action continued to reverberate throughout the NHS. Over 400 hospitals had been hit during this period by action ranging from one-day strikes to all out action.

The involvement and determination of women and immigrant workers had dealt a death blow to that divisive myth that these groups of workers were responsible for inactivity and low pay.

It had also been firmly established that there was a real alternative to productivity schemes and overtime as a means of dealing with low pay.

The ancillary workers' struggle placed strike action on the agenda for thousands more workers in the next three years.

In Autumn 1973 ambulancemen challenged phase 3 of the Heath government's pay code. But NUPE withdrew official backing after only 15 of the 140 areas had settled locally, completely capitulating to Tory wage restraint.

In the same year, the nurses woke up from their harsh history of Victorian discipline, stifling hierarchy and severe exploitation, to take their part in the pay struggles.

A : er sumetentative moves by the Heath government, which were never fully ties under a Labour government.

They heralded a new era of reductions DHSS RENTS During this period over 350,000 nurses took part in some form of industrial action to the amazement of the government, the upper echelons of the nursing profession and the union officials who had written the nurses off as an inherently passive, conservative female workforce.

For some time nurses anger had been growing. In 1969 the Royal College of Nursing's "Raise the Roof" campaign had involved nurses for the first time in campaigning actively despite its hopeless emphasis on petitioning and lobbying.

The huge discrepancies between nurses pay claims in 1970-73 and what they were actually offered fuelled their anger. For example, in 1972 a 25% claim was met with an 82% award while in 1973 a 40% claim (the minimum needed to keep up with inflation) was met with an award of £1 plus 4%!

In April and May frustration built up after the miserable March offer. Nurses' action groups were set up, rallies and meetings organised and there was a wave of nurse recruitment to the TUC-affiliated nurses packed a meeting in Manchester after which they surged out of the staff, services and facilities.

They also brought into budget systems ' cash limits' - and consequently pay offers - well below industrial rates and well below inflation.

What the Labour government started (with IMF urging) as a money saving operation the Tories have continued with a vengeance as an onslaught on the whole concept of a National Health Service.

There have been several notable battles around cuts and particularly around closures of wards/hospitals.

Among the hospitals, Hounslow, the saneolo centred on occupations by staff in defence of services.

But the cuts begin with low wages and go much deeper than, most people realise.

Because of their appallingly low basic wages, health service workers are, particularly susceptible to 'extras' such as bonus schemes, overtime, and various extra payments in lieu of a decent basic wage.

Union bureaucrats often find it easier and simpler to negotiate extras than to fight a good strong campaign for wage claims or against the cuts.

Acting-up allowance, originally negotiated as a protection against exploitation, is now increasingly misused to cover for unfilled vacancies.

Until the cuts began it was LIVING hall and in the road traffic.

Gone was the image of the genteel nurse for whom such things just weren't proper! On 8 July there was a national day of action on nurses pay.

In Swansea, 1500 miners stopped work for 24 hours in solidarity with the nurses after flying pickets of uniformed nurses asked miners to "strike a blow for the nurses"

Engineers in South Wales and Manchester also responded with sympathy The action resulted in the Halsbury inquiry into nurses pay. After months of deliberations the inquiry awarded increases averaging 30%.

However these were highly differentiated according to grade, offering for example 58% for management grades, but only 5.6% for first year student nurses whose basic wage went up from only £23.30 to £ 24.43.

Medical technicians in ASTMS were the next to strike, followed by radiographers.

3,000 of the 8,000 radiographers marched through central London on 6 July 1974. ult to get management to even consider bonus schemes. Now, hospital administrators are initiating discussions on bonus schemes as a way of cutting back on staffing levels and to get workers to take on jobs which have been left vacant but need to be done.

It is, of course, essential to oppose any attempt to introduce bonus schemes. But it is also a very difficult position to argue in Health Service branches when it is very often only bonus and overtime payments which give workers enough money to pay the bills and survive.

Are low wages then related to cuts? The answer is a resounding yes. Continued unfilled vacancies begin the creeping cuts which signify plans to close a ward or department and possibly the whole hospital.

A ward without its own domestics and ancilliaries and staffed mostly by agency nurses is much easier to close down than a ward with permanent staff.

Absurdly, the lack of staff, engineered by management, is often the excuse given for closing wards.

Low pay, deliberately kept low by the Tories, also makes it more difficult to recruit workers - some of whom are financially better off claiming benefit than working for Health Service wages.

This is again used as an excuse for poor services which increase the waiting lists and waiting time in clinics, and helps to create a general sense of frusRadiographers at the Royal Free became the first ever to strike, followed by a stoppage in the North-East region.

Their action resulted in an interim settlement and a Halsbury inquiry.

NHS engineers and junior doctors were the next to take action. In fact by the mid-seventies virtually every nonmanagement grade of hospital worker had taken some form of action.

The years 1975-78 were characterised by vicious wage controls under Healey's social Contract. But in the winter of 1978-79 there was mass national action throughout the NHS and local government.

The so-called winter of discontent' was again notable for the militancy of the rank and file and the totally inadequate leadership of the union officials. șn "on account" followed by the plus inquiry. This eventually awarded ancillaries between 3.8% and 16.6% - though most got only between 3.8% and 6.5% and wound up having to pay back money to management.

Clegg awarded ambulance drivers 121 25%, while nurses received increases from 25% for a sister to 13% for student nurses. tration in the public.

Private medicine then seems attractive and 'worth the money'.

If all health workers earned a decent cover for unfilled vacancies.

If we knew that our wages would pay the bills, there would be no need to work extra hours or 'fill-in' at higher grade

----- pull-quotes -----

I thunk we can recommend 55%. CLAIM

implemented, substantial cuts in NHS spending first began in the mid-seven-

basic wage it would be much easier for us to carry out union policies of no