United action in Leicester c ac-ion

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INDUSTRIAL action started on Wednesday 28 April, at the Leicester Royal Infirmary.

On the previous Monday the NUPE Hospitals Branch Committee had unanimously agreed that united action was necessary, and that meant that if COHSE were starting their action, then NUPE locally would start.

This, of course, runs against the national position of NUPE which is to wait until the TUC Health Committee calls for action.

Other hospitals covered by the Leicester Hospital Branch of NUPE have also started action, or are starting action on May 4.

At the moment the action is confined to working to rule and establishing what areas of work we will allow to be done and which we will cut out.

So far the response has been very good amongst al sections of the ancillary staff, but the influence of the RCN and the 'Florence Nightingale' mentality has meant that action amongst steward, Leicester) nurses is very isolated patchy.

The response of the management has so far been very low key, but they have issued to shop stewards at the Leicester Royal Infirmary, copies of the 1979 DHSS Health Service Management document "If Industrial Relations Break Down' This is nothing more than a warning shot and as has been explained by the Hospital Administrator, it contains the various responses that the workforce can expect, including docking of pay and lockouts.

The stewards told the membership about this document at a mass meeting of both NUPE and COHSE on Friday April 30, explaining that management had not yet acted on it, and would warn us when they intended to.

The rank and file responded by saying that the fight must go on. We'll have to take anything that is thrown at us, but we have to win this time.

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Socialist Organiser no.83 May 6, 1982 Page 4