Now that we’ve all recovered from Strike Day on Wednesday we wanted to say a massive Thank You to everyone that took action. Our ambulance crew members did the business again just as they had in December but how amazing was it to see our EOC comrades come out and join us on the picket lines this time!! A lot of members from some of the lowest banded jobs in the LAS bearing our fight on their shoulders too and we were so happy to cheer them out of both sites as they stood together in solidarity with us all. If you look closely in some of the videos from the day you will see a few teary eyes of emotion. Check out the rolling coverage webpage of the day https://www.unison.org.uk
Who’d have thought it possible but we are still getting stronger and stronger. Since the Strike Day in December we have seen more staff join UNSION, more members taking part in the action, even more support from the public we serve and most importantly, significant movement from the government. We had previously been outright stonewalled by the government who had ignored us and the grave issues facing the NHS. Well, we said we won’t be ignored and will not stop until things change, and they are changing. The government is cracking, even before we got to Wednesday they’d done what they said they wouldn’t and started talking about our pay. But the fight is not yet won, we still have no firm offer from the government to put to members.
Our next date for further Strike Action is the 23rd of January and the government still have time to change gear, find the funds to invest in the workforce, host more pay talks and improve wages. Until then we will carry on fighting. On the next Strike Day we now need to really maximise our effect, we still have members not taking up action and now more than ever we need members to join us from the groups we are calling out. If you were part of the groups we called last time but didn’t take action, please contact one of our many reps if there’s anything we can do to support you in taking action next time. We have been so successful with the groups we’ve called out and the arrangements we’ve made with management to keep us saving lives it has given us huge public support in a campaign which is an absolute no brainer. Our pay will improve and we will save the NHS, let’s keep taking the fight to the government’s door and show them what we’re made of.
As before we will be meeting with our Branch Senior reps and again with senior LAS management in preparation for the 23rd and will publish the arrangements for the day to members in due course.
As always, if you need any advice, support or want to help out organising in your workplace, please don’t hesitate to contact one of your local reps or the Senior Rep for your area below:
- Brian Robinson (East Central) – 07917906324 brian.robinson6@nhs.net
- Marcus Davis (Central and South East) – 07830160293 marcus.davis5@nhs.net
- Steve Johnson (South West and media/comms point of contact) – 07958912090 steven.johnson11@nhs.net
- Paul Chiddington (West) – 07968965773 paul.chiddington@nhs.net
- Pete Hannell (North West) – 07585117178 peter.hannell@nhs.net
- Julie Cunnane (North East) – 07961832766 julie.cunnane@nhs.net
- Sam Billoo (EOC) – 07958395801 sam.billoo@nhs.net
Lastly a couple of links you may find useful, first is our Branch website www.lasunison.com where we post the briefing notes and you can find your local area Facebook group links, second is Strike solidarity — UNISON NHS pay where you can find various resources about the strike and you can pass on to anyone else that wants info or to show their solidarity with us.
See you on the picket lines!
LAS UNISON
