Glasgow healthworkers fighting Sodexho

Date: 8th Aug '02

Name: Roibeard

Country: Alba

Comrades,
Nearly 300 Porters, catering and domestic workers at Glasgow's Royal Infirmary have been out on strike for three days this week and two last week in their fight against the mutli-national company - Sodexho. Sodexho have bussed in scabs from all over the UK, to try and break the strike, when strikers blocked the roads to scabs and delivery vans the police have thrown strikers to the ground. The workers have taken action after 18 months of in action from Sodexho on their pay and terms and conditions claim. They need support, financial and physical on the picket line, as there is some 18 entrances to the Royal Infirmary.
Messages of support can be sent to:
UNISON North Glasgow Hospitals Branch
Cuthbertson Building,
Royal Infirmary
Castle St, Glasgow G4 0SF
email: carolyn.leckie2
@northglasgowhospitals.nhs.scot.uk

See a report from last nights Evening Times.

solidarity

Roibeard
Hospital pickets block strike breaking kids

By Susie Kelly
TEENAGE workers from Army camps in England and Wales brought in to break the three-day strike at the Royal Infirmary were on their way back home today.

The youngsters, who were being paid just 30 a day, were returning south because they could not get across strikers picket lines.

They had been bussed 400 miles by private cleaning firm Sodexho to run essential services at the Glasgow hospital.

But union pickets representing around 300 porters, cleaners and domestic staff, who began their strike at midnight on Monday, blocked the gates, leading to angry clashes with police at the Wishart Street entrance.

Four vans with more than 40 strike-breaking workers failed to get into the hospital.

There was a 30-minute stand-off and Unison officials claimed police were heavy-handed as they tried to clear a way for the vans.

Sodexho, a French multinational, was paying 42.50 a night to put up emergency staff at the Travel Inn in George Street.

The white van used to transport workers spent most of the morning parked outside the hotel.

But just after lunchtime Sodexho began making arrangements to send the youngsters back to bases at Wales and Newcastle.

Two teenagers were led out a side fire exit of the hotel on their way home. They hid their faces by pulling their tracksuits over their heads.

A Sodexho spokeswoman said: The workers are going home because they have not been able to cross the picket line. They volunteered to help but were prevented from working at the hospital.

However, some of the youngsters told of their anguish at being caught up in a situation outwith their control.

They said they were not told about the strike at the hospital when they were offered the work.

One 25-year-old, who refused to be named for fear of being sacked, said: Its awful. Sodexho did not tell us we were coming into this terrible situation.

One kitchen porter was in the hospital yesterday and he said rubbish bags were piling up in the maternity ward.

Its terrible when you think of the bacteria and the babies in that part of the hospital.

Most of those brought in to help beat the strike are in their late teens or early 20s and work at the tank firing range at Castlemartin, near Pembroke, and two other military bases nearby.

Unison bosses claimed the workers were inexperienced and one striker said: I met one of the boys who had been brought in to do scab work. He was just a teenager and was taking a body to the morgue. Thats unbelievable.

Sodexho refused to confirm the ages of those bussed from south of the border, but a spokeswoman said: All our staff are over 16. They are being brought in at the normal rate of pay and are not receiving any extra pay.

But Carolyn Leckie, Unison branch secretary, slammed Sodexho for attempting to bring the strike breakers in.

The people brought in did not know they were going into a strike situation. They said they were told to get on a bus.

Three women were crying in vans as they tried to get through the gates. They were clearly intimidated.

Sodexho is trying to spend more money breaking the strike than resolving it. The firms behaviour and the conduct of the hospital Trust is shameful.

However, this afternoon Ms Leckie was holding talks with bosses at the Royal over emergency cover during the strike.

She said: We are now willing to discuss providing a realistic level of emergency cover as long as Sodexho does not send in any outside workers.

Todays clashes followed a stand-off yesterday as pickets tried to stop bands of women strike- breakers from crossing the picket line.

The striking ancillary staff want equal pay and conditions to workers employed by the NHS.

Unison bosses have rejected a minimum pay offer of 5 an hour from August. They also said Sodexhos latest offer meant moves to NHS terms and conditions would not be implemented until 2005.

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