Hospital workers on strike outside Russell's Hall Hospital, Dudley on February 23

Express & Star

Unison and Unite hospital workers on strike outside Russell's Hall Hospital.

Transcript

00:00 Express and Star outside Russell's Hall Hospital where as you can see quite a big protest going

00:07 on about payments to workers by Mighty who employ the domestic staff here in the Dudley

00:14 Trust. Richard Harris, you've worked here 16 years and you're the branch secretary for

00:20 Unison. Almost a complete turnout of your staff today I believe on the picket line.

00:26 Yeah, it's been very well supported. We felt that from the start it would be. But today

00:30 is just a show in a vegetable we are together. What is the message to Mighty because it's

00:38 an argument over the payments that the Trust staff have had, people who work within the

00:43 NHS, but obviously you're employed independently. What is your message to them?

00:49 Well, just give us the money really because in the end of the day it's not about the money

00:55 as well, it's about recognition for the hard work we all put in. From the porters to domestics

01:00 to cleaners to switchboard to the catering staff. It's just recognition of the hard work

01:05 we all put in through Covid and the things we had to endure during Covid.

01:10 And Ollie, you're from Unison, you're supporting your colleagues at Unite this morning as you

01:15 can hear. Massive support for this strike. What is your message to Mighty? A lot of these

01:22 workers are fairly low paid. We were talking about it earlier, just over the minimum wage

01:27 and this is a relatively small sum you're saying that they are owed.

01:32 It's certainly a small sum for Mighty but it's a lot of money for each individual member

01:36 here. These are some of the lowest paid workers in the health service. They do jobs like porters,

01:41 domestics, sterile service workers, the food, the linen, switchboard operators here. So

01:47 they've worked throughout the Covid pandemic just like NHS police did. So the lump sum

01:52 payment or the Covid bonus for a full-time worker is about £1,655 and Mighty have certainly

02:00 got the money to pay that. They have enough money to pay their chief executive a bonus

02:05 bigger than the total cost of the 450 staff bonus combined here. They've got enough money

02:10 for their head office in the Shard and they've got enough profits to bus in workers from

02:14 Cumbria, from London, from all over England and from Oxford to strike break today effectively.

02:22 So they are bused in workers. They've got them staying in luxury hotels at the Cockthorn

02:25 Hotel. There's some Mighty workers. There's other Mighty workers bused in that are staying

02:29 at different hotels on here. So they've got enough money to try and break the strike but

02:32 they claim they can't afford to pay the workers here the lump sum. So all this is about is

02:39 about pay parity. We're not asking for any more. We're just saying treat the staff here

02:43 the same as NHS staff. They worked in NHS hospitals. They worked alongside NHS colleagues

02:48 but they haven't received a bonus and they should do so. It's just about fairness. It's

02:51 a really simple issue of fairness. This isn't the first strike here. There's one planned

02:55 next Thursday. Are you prepared to go further to achieve your goal? This is a really strong

03:03 show of two trade unions coming together in huge numbers. There's around 380 members that

03:09 have got a mandate for strike action today and we are going to be here as long as it

03:14 takes to get the money in members' pockets. None of these members want to be here today.

03:18 None of us want to be doing this. It's been a long campaign. We've given Mighty every

03:22 opportunity to pay the lump sum. It's their dispute to end. They could pay it in an instant.

03:27 So hopefully after today they'll pay it up. But we'll be here for as many days as needed

03:31 until they do pay up and that money needs to get in members' pockets as soon as possible.

03:35 La la la la, smile for the camera, smile for the camera.

03:41 Attack!

03:43 (audience laughing)

Category

Transcript

Recommended