13.03.1997

Deserted strikers fight on

Hillingdon Strikers Support Campaign calls all supporters to mass picket

Hillingdon Hospital Trust have stolen the picket huts and the personal belongings of the sacked workers.

At a rally in Edinburgh on Saturday March 1, Rodney Bickerstaffe, when challenged why the regional officers were refusing to sign cheques for donations agreed at the regional committees - ie, £10,000 from East Midlands and £100,000 from the London Region - responded, “The decision is ultra vires”. This means that the branches can make donations to the HSSC but not the regions - because part of the deal done with the Pall Mall cleaning contractors before the latest industrial cases were heard - and without a ballot of the strikers - was for the ‘normalisation’ of relations between the union and Pall Mall and that the union leadership would “give no further support to its members” in the struggle for justice.

This is an appalling betrayal of basic trade union principles. The sacked Liverpool dockers and the local community are now coming to the aid of the sacked workers. The film director, Ken Loach, has offered his support.

The strikers are determined to carry on the struggle to win justice but also to expose the blatant betrayal of the union leadership. For 18 months the strikers have suffered racist attack and abuse, physical attack and imprisonment - not to mention the appalling weather conditions. The picket has been maintained seven days a week since October 1 1995 despite sickness and fear. They intended to win and now such is the level of understaffing at the hospital that they can all be re-employed without loss of jobs. At a recent community health council meeting the hospital spokesperson admitted that the wards were not being cleaned properly because “the tender specification was never drafted properly, leaving many areas of the hospital uncleaned for long periods”.

Malkiat Bilku, the shop steward, said:

“Surely the union leaders should be fighting for our jobs, wages and conditions and to defend and improve the National Health Service. If they are not prepared to do this - what are they defending? Are they just collecting the subs of the members to pay the salaries of the full-timers? They should try living on our wages and our insecurity. Then they would know the need to fight for justice and dignity”.