NUM: from back page Bradford NHS unions call for support action

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Halewood deal THE occupation at Bradford's Thornton View Hospital continues despite renewed attempts by management to undermine the struggle and police intimidation of pickets.

Since the beginning of August nurses and auxillary staff at this 82 bed hospital which cares mainly for geriatric patients have been staging a work-in, and an around-the clock picket (with support now from the local labour movement and community) in defiance of the Yorkshire Regional Health Authority attempt at closure.

Under the present Tory attacks on the NHS, the Department of Health has stated that the Bradford District Health Authority has "overspent by £1 million.

The response of the DHA to this statement was to announce plans to close two of its hospitals, Thornton View (the first to come under direct threat) and Shipley Hospital, a special unit with 23 pre-convalescence beds, X-ray and physiotherapy units.

Since then an occupation headquarters has been established inside the hospital for workers to c0-ordinaté ine continuous and special care many of the elderly patients require, and to organise the essential picketing needed to keep watch on the entrance in case any attempts are made by management to move out the patients.

According to a spokesperson at the occupation a van load of police turned up one evening two weeks ago and tried to get through the picket line on the pretence of an alarm bell ringing inside. And last week management made a public announcement that due to their concern for the deterioration of nursing care, especially at night, they would be bringing in agency senior nursing staff to take charge of night-time patient care.

This renewed pressure by management to weaken ine contidence and solidarity of the occupation was foiled when pickets remained firm and refused the two attempts by agency scab workers to get in.

Local doctors are opposing the closure, and the hospital workers' action is being supported by the consultant geriatrician, with medical attention continuing to be provided by the hospital GP.

This week (Monday, October 10), health service unions NUPE and COHSE in Bradford gave notice of widespread union action in support of the occupation and called upon the DHA to withdraw dismissal notices and drop its threat of legal action against the hospital workers.

Last month (September 10), despite pouring rain, there was a successful demonstration in support of the Thornton View occupation, with the aim of gaining widespread labour movement and community support for their action.

Now, with the Shipley Hospital coming under attack the need to broaden the struggle is essential. So another demonstration has been called, this time at Shipley Hospital, on Saturday 15 October at 1.00 p.m., to make links between the two threatened hospitals.

It is vital that the occupation at the Thornton View Hospital, and the forthcoming fight at Shipley Hospital, receives the total support of the labour movement. This is just one of the attempts being made by the Tories to dismantle the NHS. We should make sure that we put all our efforts into making sure that they do not succeed in their bid to privatise health care and destroy the health service.

The occupation HQ can be contacted at the Thornton View Hospital, Bradford. Telephone. 0274 817574. Messages of support and donations to Betty Elie, c/o Resource Centre, 93 Little' Horton Lane, Bradford 5.

*As the number of health authorities resisting a fresh jound of cuts and redundancies imposed by Health Minister Norman Fowler rose to six this week, over 1,500 health service workers in North West London, including doctors and nursés, stopped work for an hour on Tuesday, 11th, in support of the Brent Health Authority, the first of the six to say no to Fowler.

THE six week strike by 200 car delivery drivers at the Silcock and Colling delivery plant, which brought the lay-off of 4,000 production workers at Fords Halewood, ended in a short term victory this week.

A mass meeting accepted a 15point peace formula, arranged in talks at the weekend between union officials and management, who had procedures complaints channels. ies, churches, political parties, business and trading interests, in a broad alliance to defend the industry."

No substitute Such hankering after a Popular Front spanning unions and employers is no substitute for developing and extending industrial action.

The Monktonhall strikers must not be left to fight alone: this was what broke the back of resistance at Cardowan and in South Wales. The NUM leadership must focus its every energy on spreading the fight across Scotland and onto a national level.

breached negotiating by refusing to take through agreed This was seen by the union as a preliminary move in the company's plan to make redundant one third of the 200 workforce -a move which is now to be discussed with TGWU officials. went through the lists of major stoppages which the Depart ment of Employment publishes each year.

Between 1978 and 1982, inclusive, there were 773 such stoppages. For each one, the Department of Employment gives brief details. By my reckoning, 612 of those disputes were manual workers only, 74 white-collar workers only, and 87 mixed.

That makes 79% of the disputes manual workers only. In 1966-73, according to the Department of Employment, "some 85% of stoppages concerned manual workers alone"

Major stoppages are only a 'small percentage of all strikes. But the indications are that manual workers' strikes continue to be by far more numerous: and this, despite the fact that in 1981 and 1982, the share of manufacturing in the total striker-days was way down on "what it had been in previous years.

BRADFORD Assemble Shipley Hospital, 1.00 p.m.

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POEU: from front page

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larch Mar ct 15 Save Shipley Hospital: