100% vote for strike action leads to victory for hospital laundry workers

By NHS Tayside Unison members

Laundry workers at Dundee’s Ninewells hospital have won an important victory in their re-grading dispute with NHS Tayside. Following a 100% vote in favour of a strike that was due to begin in late November, Unison members agreed an offer from management that will mean all laundry staff who are currently on Band 1 will, by April 2016, move to the top of Band 2. Moreover, this deal will be backdated to 2012.

This is the second major victory for low paid workers in the NHS in Dundee this year. The Ninewells and Royal Victoria porters’ strike, which lasted for 13 weeks, resulted in a similar upgrading and proves that decisive action by the trade unions can force the NHS bosses to retreat. Indeed it’s clear that the porters’ victory played an important role in encouraging the Tayside Unison branch leadership to fight for this pay agreement. Tayside NHS management would certainly have viewed with horror the possibility of another strike over pay, given their bruising encounter with the porters. Both the porters and laundry staff in Dundee have shown that strike action, or the threat of strike action, are the most effective way of winning concessions from the bosses.

Both these victories underline that by breaking with the “normal” NHS partnership model – where unions and management work together to very often administer cuts – and taking independent working-class action breakthroughs are possible. As with the porters’ action, this important step-forward will boost the confidence off all staff in NHS Tayside to fight over pay as well as opposing the impact of ongoing cuts in the NHS in Scotland.