We are giving full support to a strike by hundreds of staff at the Wigan-based hospitals Wigan, Wrightington, and Leigh, on Weds 23 and Thurs 24 May. The strike is against the NHS trust outsourcing the staff to a subsidiary company called “WWL Solutions” which will be a private company owned by the NHS Trust, but staff employed by WWL Solutions will no longer be considered as NHS employees. Campaign spokesperson Hugh Caffrey said:
The striking health workers at Wigan Wrightington and Leigh have our full support. The collapse of Carillion has discredited the outsourcing model. And yet here NHS bosses are recreating Carillion, outsourcing staff from the public sector to the private sector to reduce their terms and conditions, pay and pensions. That’s despite an £8.6million surplus in Wigan NHS!
This is the failed ideology of cuts and privatisation and we are totally opposed to it. We urge the public throughout Greater Manchester to support this strike and express their outrage to the management. Attempts to introduce these “sub-co’s” elsewhere have met with huge opposition, not least in Bristol where it was defeated as it should be in Wigan.
The strike is organised by the unions Unison and Unite see http://www.unisonnw.org/hospital_staff_to_strike_on_23_24_may and http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/nhs-staff-set-to-strike-over-outsourcing-plans/
Keep our NHS public Greater Manchester 