IWW and Friends Prepare to Take on Useless Blood Service Bosses
Submitted on Wed, 02/06/2008 - 3:27pm
Originally published at UK Indymedia
The last year saw the
IWW and their allies launch a nation-wide campaign to prevent NBS
management from enacting dangerous cuts that will only serve to ease
their own workload. IWW members in the NBS’s recognised unions (Unison
and Unite) have also been at the forefront of the campaign to push the
big unions to act against the plans, rather than seemingly roll over
and let management do whatever they want.
NBS
bosses plan to centralise thirteen blood processing centres into three
‘supercentres’ in Colindale, Manchester and Bristol. This means 600
jobs will be slashed and local economies and labour markets are going
to be hit hard. What’s more, the transport of blood will be even more
reliant on our already-overcrowded and polluting road system, with many
hospitals more than 100 miles from the nearest centre. Put simply,
these plans are a danger to workers, communities and patients.
Of
course, the threat of privatisation looms heavily over the NBS, and
many see this as a route towards the piece-by-piece selling-off of the
NBS to various profit-hungry and irresponsible companies.
As a
result of the campaign, the Board of Directors issued an ‘independent’
report with the management consultants McKinsey and Co., which is due
out on February 1st. The IWW and their supporters are preparing to hit
NBS bosses hard if they don’t scrap the plans. IWW members in the NBS
are also calling for greater workers’ control, as well as a transparent
and recallable board of directors, elected by the workers themselves,
as a bare minimum.
Adam, one IWW activist, warned NBS bosses
about the backlash they should expect: “If they think they’re going to
get away with these cuts, they’re wrong. We’re taking these clowns on,
and we’ll fight them all the way.”
Please get in contact with
us if you want to help the IWW with joining in actions in this crucial
campaign in the coming weeks, and build a powerful and militant union
within the healthcare sector.
>> Solidarity forever!
>> Support the NBS workers!
>> Give management vampires hell (and plenty of garlic)!
Contact:
- nbs.iww.org
- [email protected]
- 07910 627 970