Defiant and courageous Dundee porters force NHS bosses to the table
Philip Stott reports.
A potential breakthrough in the long-running porters strike at Ninewells and Royal Victoria hospitals has been achieved. That face-to-face negotiations between Unite and NHS Tayside management are now due to take place next week is solely down to the courageous and defiant stand by the 120 porters and their union.
Partnership fails to deliver
11 weeks into their all-out strike – and after 15 weeks of industrial action as a whole – the porters are still solid and determined. They have driven a coach and horses through the normal “partnership” model of working in the NHS. A model where all too often rightwing trade union leaders see themselves as working hand-in-glove with management and accepting cuts, rather than resisting them. The porters action led the NHS Tayside chief executive a few weeks into the strike to exclaim that Unite was “acting contrary to what we would consider to be the normal actions of a reasonable trade union.”
The porters strike has forged “a new normal” for how trade unions should conduct themselves in defence of workers rights and terms and conditions in the NHS.
Their refusal to accept so-called “normal” partnership methods of working has been crucial in forcing management to the table for serious talks around the porters demands.
STAC report
This stand did not prevent Unite from participating in the partnership based Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee (STAC) process which delivered its report on 17 June. Not surprisingly the report, despite the overwhelming case made by Unite, backs the employer. Nevertheless, STAC does state “it may have been appropriate to question the rationale for taking these particular posts [the porters jobs] through a long and rigorous job evaluation scheme.” As Unite has pointed out the process and use of up to four “moderation panels” to assess where the porters should be banded was not agreed through the normal partnership body.
However, the decision of the porters not to allow STAC to be binding on the union has proved to be crucial in winning the concessions of real talks. By taking their campaign to the door, literally, of the SNP’s Scottish health minister – Shona Robison – and the Scottish parliament, the porters have also applied great political pressure on the SNP. A party whose leadership claim to be anti-austerity but who, in practice, has refused to back the porters strike action.
As a leading Unite steward told us: “It turns out the for the last nine days representatives of the health minister have been in discussion with NHS Tayside management to ensure talks with us will now take place. It looks like meaningful negotiations will happen for the first time. In the meantime the strike continues until we get an acceptable deal for all 120 porters at Ninewells and RVH.”
Management casualty?
This step forward in the strike has also opened up divisions among NHS Tayside executives. The HR director, George Doherty, issued a bulletin to all Ninewells staff in the hours following the STAC report claiming that management had won their case. All that was needed was to negotiate the effective terms of the union’s surrender and the “return to work of the porters.” Almost immediately this was withdrawn and replaced with a new communique from the chief executive stating that her priority “is to meet with the porters and Unite as soon as possible to discuss the way forward”. What the long-term employment prospects are of the HR director of NHS Tayside is unclear.
The porters are travelling to Glasgow on Saturday to take part in the STUC rally against austerity. The lesson for the STUC leadership should be if 200 workers in Dundee and Glasgow can fight their employers and the pro-cuts politicians to a standstill, imagine what could be done if the entire trade union movement acted together and built for a one-day general strike against austerity?
