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uk

Get behind NHS

workers fight
O

n Monday 24 November health

workers across England will
strike for a second time against
the Tories insulting pay offer. The
government has offered some NHS
workers a 1 percent rise, but tens of
thousands of them dont even qualify
for that!
Everyone who wants to defend our
NHS from Tory cuts and wants an end
to the assault on working class living
standards (the longest squeeze since the
1850s), should get behind this strike.

Fighting

Health workers arent the only people

fighting back. University lecturers have
started a marking boycott in defence
of their pensions. Firefighters recently
struck for four days and could soon
walk out again. FBU members were
outraged by the sacking of their unions
Buckinghamshire Executive member
Ricky Matthews.
But the scale of the resistance to the
Tories is much less than we need.
Welsh NHS workers were set to strike
on 10 November, but unions pulled the
action.
In October union leaders suspended
local government strikes that were set
to involve hundreds of thousands of
workers. They did so on the basis of the
repackaging of a lousy 1 percent pay deal.
Activists have been campaigning for a
rejection and to get the strikes back on.
We cant afford to let our union leaders
back off from a fight. If we retreat then the
Tories will just keep coming for more.
And its no good waiting for Labour
to save us. They have signed up to Tory
spending plans and their 1 percent pay cap.
Milibands failure to connect with core
Labour voters is so obvious that some
of the partys leading MPs want him to
be replaced as leader before the general
election!
The Tories are in a mess too.
Camerons response to the growth of
UKIP and defections from his own party
is to turn up the rhetoric against migrants.
The Tories and UKIP want us to blame

migrants for our economic problems. But

it isnt migrants that are cutting our pay or
closing our hospitals its the Tories and
the bosses. Disgracefully Labour has gone
along with this divide and rule rubbish.
We need a united fightback to stop
the Tory attacks. Thats exactly what well
see when NHS workers take to the picket
lines on 24 November.
We need to get delegations of trade
unionists and campaigners along to these.
We should take collections for strikers in
every workplace and invite health workers
to speak at our meetings.
In Scotland and Wales where there
arent health strikers, we could follow the
example of Glasgow Unison members
who are planning to twin with hospitals
South of the border to raise support for
the action.

Argue

We have to argue that every union should

be fighting now to win better pay for their
members, and to beat off attacks from the
employers and the government.
As we saw on 10 July when 1.5 million
workers struck together over pay we are
stronger when we fight together.
Saturdays Unite the Resistance
conference will try to build solidarity
with the fights that are happening,
create networks of workers who can
pressure the union leaders to call more
action, and build up independent
campaigning initiatives.
We also need to raise the issue of

political representation. Labour is failing

to lead any real resistance to the Tories.
We need an alternative. At the next
general election the Trade Unionist and
Socialist Coalition will stand candidates
who will side with working class people.
We need a stronger more united left wing
challenge to austerity.
Unite the Resistance conference

Striking together
& organising to win
Saturday
15 November,
12 - 5pm
@ Bloomsbury
Central Baptist
Church, 235
Shaftesbury Avenue,
London WC2H 8EP
Sessions include
Strategies to win:
How do we beat the
austerity agenda?
The fight against
zero hours contracts
and organising the
unorganised
Migrant workers:
part of the union,
part of the solution
After the strikes:
where next for the
fight to save the
NHS?

Speakers include
Matt Wrack
FBU general secretary
Mags Dalton & Roger
Hutt Care UK strikers
John McDonnell MP
Ian Hodson BFAWU
national president
Peter Pinkney
RMT president
Fast food strikers
from the US
Karen Howell
Support Stafford
Hospital campaign
Paula Peters
Disabled People
Against the Cuts
Ian Lawrence
NAPO general
secretary
Barbara Pokryszka
Unite, hotel worker
organiser

For more info and to book go to uniteresist.org

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Support NHS strike 12/11/14

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