This appeal to the National Industrial Sector Committee (NISC) is on behalf of the 1500 Unite members at Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, who voted overwhelmingly to reject the government pay award, and to ballot for strike action over pay and ongoing job cuts.
Last Saturday 13th September, over 100,000 racists and fascists marched passed St Thomas hospital in an anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, anti-Muslim demonstration. While the march went past, elements of this mob tried to force their way in to the hospital and our security officers, - the majority of them Unite members from migrant backgrounds - had to barricade the doors of our hospital to stop this racist mob getting inside and threatening staff and patients.
This massive display of support for racist, anti-immigrant, anti-refugee views has created fear and anxiety among our multi-national, multi-cultural workforce, many of whom felt too intimidated to attend work on Saturday, or stayed after work for hours in the hospital until the racist crowd had dispersed and they felt safe to leave.
These events are terrifying, and foreshadow worse to come in the future as racist scapegoating increases and attacks on migrants worsen.
As Unite members in the NHS, we represent this diverse, multi-national, multi-cultural workforce and are best placed to fight back against both the damaging effects of austerity on our public services, and challenge the racist ideas which divert blame on to migrants and refugees.
Now though we are being told our union will not ballot us for strike action to fight for better pay or to fight back against the job cuts and closures which are devastating the NHS.
Despite our branch, and many others in London & Eastern Region and around the country voting in favour of strike action in our consultative ballot, and spending the last five months preparing for a ballot, we have been told we may not be given a strike ballot. The reasons we were given; because other health unions have decided not to ballot for strike action, and some Unite Health branches do not want to strike without them.
Making the decision on this basis is wholly wrong and should be rejected. Our members will expect our union to be willing to fight. The issues they want to fight over have not gone away, and members should have the say on that through a strike ballot.
Our members have voted for strike action in a consultative ballot, and over 30 branches and workplaces, representing 20% of our membership indicated they wanted to ballot for industrial action. These members should be given the ability to do so.
The issues our members voted to strike over; low pay, the cost of living crisis, understaffing, job cuts, down banding - have not gone away, and the situation worsens with each passing month. We need to use this opportunity to allow our members to have their say and show their willingness to fight back.
Our members must be given the ability to make their choice through the ballot, not through a decision at the NISC. Its removing our members
In this time of great national crisis, where our public services are collapsing, the economy is stagnant, and racist mobs are roaming the streets, we must take action wherever we can to fight back. Our strengthen lies in demonstrating how the working-class uniting in the workplace can win victories for working people. Ducking the fight because it is challenging now, will only make it more difficult the next time.
If a strike ballot is denied to those branches which wish to fight, it will undermine our credibility with our members. We have spent months promising a strike ballot to members across workplaces in L&E Region, to not deliver would break trust in the union, and undermine any future attempts to organise strike action.
In L&E we have been building branches which can take strike action, ending years if stagnation in the Health sector. We have secured important local victories, and are recruiting reps and strengthening Unite's organisation in health in the capital.
By taking forward these disputes to strike action, we will build organisation, and be in a better position to fight disputes in the future. With Labour continuing to undermine the NHS, we must take forward every fight we can.