London, UK. 15th July 2017. Len Hockey Unite Secretary for Bart's Trust speaks at the rally after 5 days of strike by the cleaners and porters of Barts Trust and their supporters at the Royal London Hospital before they march through the East End to Mile End Hospital. A crowd of hundreds at the rally heard speeches by the strikers, by the leaders of the successful cleaners strike at the LSE, by groups opposed to Serco who employ mainly migrant workers in other public sector workplaces as well as running immigration prisons such as Yarl's Wood where migrant women and families are daily represse
London, UK. 15th July 2017. Len Hockey Unite Secretary for Bart's Trust speaks at the rally after 5 days of strike by the cleaners and porters of Barts Trust and their supporters at the Royal London Hospital before they march through the East End to Mile End Hospital. A crowd of hundreds at the rally heard speeches by the strikers, by the leaders of the successful cleaners strike at the LSE, by groups opposed to Serco who employ mainly migrant workers in other public sector workplaces as well as running immigration prisons such as Yarl's Wood where migrant women and families are daily repressed and subject to physical and sexual abuse, as well as Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and trade unionists including Gail Cartmail of Unite. When Serco took over the workers at Royal London, their first action was to write to them all telling them they were no longer allowed paid tea breaks; they had to withdraw when workers refused to move from the canteen until the breaks were restored. The accuse Serco of increasing stress and workload with a climate of bullying, intimidation and fear and a failure to set up procedures for reporting problems with facilities and other issues. Serco have refused the Unite union claim of 30p per hour in line with inflation and cost of living increases in London, and workers voted 99% in favour of strike action. They claim that on strike days Serco have illegally brought in agency workers with inadequate training to replace them and that after the first 2 days of strike conditions in the hospital were unsanitary and some patients did not receive hot meals. Serco's ten-year contract at Barts is worth £600m and the Barts Trust is in a financially impossible position because of the £ weekly interest payments on a disastrous private finance initiative (PFI) contract made under New Labour.
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Photo credit: © Medyan Dairieh / Alamy / Afripics
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