Reps and members heard from Sharon Graham about the scale of NHS cuts, that the Department of Health is expecting £6.6 billion of cuts to the NHS over the next year. Graham advocated for a wealth tax on th 1% to raise £25 billion and avoid any need for cuts. We also heard from reps who were engaged in struggles; the health visitors of Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Hospital who have been on strike since 23rd February over the refusal of their health board to honour their pay banding, and Hertfordshire Trust where cuts are being made to vital cancer services.
No speakers were heard from London, despite pathology workers from Barking Havering & Redbridge NHS Trust being in the middle of a dispute and due to take strike action on the 27th April. Sharon Graham referenced the dispute in her speech, but lead rep Ucheoma Ugoji was not invited to address the rally. Neither was Chair of the London Health RISC Mark Dunne invited to speak, despite his branch East London NHS Foundation Trust winning a dispute with an outsourced employer in December 2025, showing Unite can fight and win in the NHS. And despite the rally taking place across the river from from Guys & St Thomas Hospitals, we were not invited to address the rally.
Maybe the reason lies with the fact all those branches stood candidates against the leadership slate. Whatever the reason it shows the organisers were not making there decisions based purely on platforming workers in struggle, as all branches have current or recent disputes.
While the governments 3.3% pay award was mentioned, no mention was made of when the union would open a consultative ballot over the issue, despite everyone being aware we are about to experience an episode of severe inflation due to the US-Israel attack on Iran. Its concerning that we don't have a date for the consultative ballot starting, neither has the union produced any materials analysing and agitating around the 3.3%, even though Unites own figures show inflation is now at 4.1% and much higher for certain essential products like food stuffs and utilities.
While attendance at the rally was decent, half the participants were health visitors on strike from Cwm Taf Morgannwg. Without their mobilisation the rally would have been only 50-60 people. This points to very weak organisation at present across Unite Health, being unable to mobilise more than roughly 50-60 reps nationally for an anti-cuts rally.
Its points to a real need for investment in organising in health, to rebuild branches and recruit more reps to strengthen The Health Sector.
Another notable issue was the absence of the Back to the Workplace candidates; none of the NHS members (Len Hockey, David Agleby, Suzanne Abachor) standing from London in the leadership-backed election slate attended the rally.
Its deeply concerning that the Health reps backed by the leadership could not attend this crucial rally.
There were two lobbies of Parliament organised, one at 12am and another at 2pm. I attended at 12am. The lobby appeared poorly organised, as only two MPs turned up to hear from workers, John McDonnell and Rachel Maskell.
Workers made a number of comments about the struggles they faced across the country, and MPs promised to take this away, however a GSTT rep remarked to me afterwards, how were the MPs to remember the stories as neither of them took any notes in the meeting?! It was unclear if anyone from Unite was taking minutes to pass on their record of what was said.
I heard afterwards that the 2pm lobby didnt go well as it took people 90 minutes to get through security to enter the room!
While a welcome step forward after over a year of lobbying from London reps for the union to launch an anti-cuts campaign, the rally also showed the weaknesses of Unite in Health and the need for some serious organising work to overcome this.
Now the campaign has finally started we need to keep up the momentum. I recommend the union does the following:
1. Produce materials laying out the scale of cuts we face, providing answers for where funding can come from to invest in the NHS instead of cut (wealth tax, raising taxes on profits, changing CGT etc).
2. Set dates for the start of the consultative pay ballot, include questions on whether members will strike over cuts and ensure materials cover both pay and the cuts issue.
3. Put out a call for a September/October national march against NHS cuts, so we can start building for it now and lobbying other unions to support and bring their members. Its important that there is a long term focus for the campaign, as well as the immediate fights and consultative ballots. As a national demo will take time and energy to coordinate and won't be put together quickly so the longer we give ourselves, the better.
4. Use the national combine to bring together reps nationally to share information and work towards a national gathering of NHS union reps to plan a united fightback against cuts in the service.
All health reps should be raising and discussing these issues in their branches, and RISCs should convene regional combine meetings regularly so reps have a space to coordinate and share info about cuts in their region.
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