Band 3 Now! Support the striking Tayside pharmacy workers

By Maddie Jamieson, Unite member, Dundee 

Pharmacy Support staff across Tayside are heading into their 5th week of strike action. This followed an almost unanimous vote by this group of workers to enter dispute regarding low pay.

These workers, some of the lowest paid in NHS Tayside, have been graded as a band 2, despite an ever-increasing and evermore skilled set of duties. This is part and parcel of the “filtering down” of roles within the NHS to aid cost-cutting by bosses.

Last week a panel was supposed hear the case of the workers as to why they should be regraded. However this collapsed after one of the panel members pulled out from participating.

This is a process not unfamiliar to the workers, angered by a decade of fighting for a re-grading and being denied every time.

Socialist Party Scotland welcomes the fact that the workers are now discussing what is necessary to take the struggle forward.

The “Mates at the Gates” event today is more than a mere picnic, it is a show of strength, to show that working class people across Tayside – who all rely on the NHS – are backing the pharmacy workers.

As this strike has shown, we cannot rely on any of our elected politicians to resolve this dispute, we must rely on our own strength.

Not a single elected politician at either council or government level has made a visit to the picket lines to show support and solidarity.

It is therefore a positive move that workers are discussing lobbies of elected politicians across Tayside, as well as the health board. But the workers and their families cannot be left to fight alone.

Workers right across the NHS and local government have faced over a decade of pay restraint, unbearable workloads and understaffing.

That is why there is an urgent need to build coordinated strike action across the public sector to defeat austerity and low pay.

NHS Tayside, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee(STAC) are currently playing a game of pass the parcel in terms of who is responsible for resolving this dispute with Unite, whilst the workers are left outside in the cold.

Let us be clear, this dispute could be resolved very quickly if there was the political will to do so.

Just as we pointed out in the case of the porters four years ago, a phone call from the former health minister Shona Robison, demanding that NHS Tayside pay the porters the wages they deserved, would have ended the dispute.

The same can be said of current health minister Jeane Freeman.

The pharmacy workers are setting the standard on how workers can fight back against low pay. Socialist Party Scotland will continue to give them our full support and solidarity in their struggle.

Send messages of support via Facebook to the strikers. There is also an appeal on their page for solidarity donations as well