Branch active and campaigning against the PFI pro£iteers in Hairmyres and Wishaw

We have had a great response from the staff and general public at our two stalls in Hairmyres on Tuesday and Wishaw General today, with over 1,000 signatures collected in support of our campaign.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our campaign so far, and to those who have already committed their support to the Branch.

Keep an eye out on our Facebook page for more campaigning and perhaps a sighting of a Fat Cat!

Branch now on Facebook

We are now on Facebook with our PFIs bleed the NHS dry campaign. Please like, follow and share! You can find us here

An easy way to contact your local politicians.

We have produced a put online a draft letter for you too use/adapt while writing to local politicians, which can be downloaded. Below you will find the same text and a link to send it to your local politicians MSPs, MPs and Councillors simply by imputing your postcode. Simples! Copy and paste the letter below and then visit this page .

Suggested letter

Dear

NHS LANARKSHIRE: HAIRMYRES AND WISHAW PFI CONTRACTS

I am writing as a constituent who has grave concerns surrounding the proposals of NHS Lanarkshire to extend the Soft Facilities Management (cleaning, portering, catering, and security) contracts with private contractors Serco at Wishaw General and ISS at Hairmyres Hospital.The NHS Lanarkshire Board requires to make this decision by the end of 2014.

It is my understanding that the Board intends to simply roll on the contracts with the existing Private providers, thereby continuing to pay taxpayers money to the shareholders of SERCO and ISS, for the provision of public services. UNISON and the other Health Unions and Professional Associations are campaigning to have the services brought back in house, and I as a constituent and service user support this view and would request your support to lobby the Board on this issue.

I firmly believe that staff employed in Wishaw General and Hairmyres should be employed by the NHS and not private companies who are in the NHS to bleed money from it. There is a real opportunity for NHS Lanarkshire to bring back in-house these services and ensure quality and public control of public money.

I look forward to hearing your view of this vitally important issue.

Yours sincerely

We would like to thank those friends and supporters who have already acted on this request. Please share widely and encourage others to do likewise remember PFIs bleed the NHS dry!

Time up for PFI Pro£iteers in Lanarkshire

UNISON Lanarkshire Health Branch has launched a campaign to bring staff providing 'Soft' Facilities (catering, portering, domestic and security) currently employed by Serco in Wishaw General Hospital and ISS at Hairmyres Hospital back in-house.

The Branch has taken the decision after discovering that NHS Lanarkshire planned to rollover the existing contracts on both sites to the private pro£iteers who are currently operating them. The Health Board has 'bench-marked' the services in both hospitals against the in-house services at Monklands Hospital.

UNISON believes this 'bench-marking' exercise was a farce, who in their right mind would compare services currently provided at a dilapidated Monklands with relatively new facilities at Wishaw and Hairmyres. To be clear this is NOT an attack on the staff who provide a service in Monklands but more a comment on the great work they do in difficult circumstances in an extremely old building not fit for purpose!

UNISON has produced a PFI bulletin which we have directly mailed to all Lanarkshire MSP's and MP's along with a letter asking them to support UNISON's campaign to bring the staff back in-house were they belong.

The Branch has also produced a model letter for members, their families and supporters to send to local MSP's and MP's urging their support and a petition asking the general public to also support this campaign.

Let's be clear PFIs are bleeding Lanarkshire's NHS, its time to put a stop to pro£iteers draining OUR National Health Service.

Support our campaign You can support our campaign in a number of ways you can directly email NHS Lanarkshire Chairperson Neena Mahal Nina.Mahal@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk and/or Chief Executive Ian Ross ian.ross@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk

Alternatively you can write to them both at: NHS Lanarkshire Headquarters, Fallside Road, Bothwell G71 8BB

PFI what to do with letter here

Print of letter to send to local politicians here

Print of copies of the petition here

PFIs BLEED THE NHS DRY! sticker here

UNISON PFI bulletin here

Video: The secret deal that threatens the NHS - TTIP

Cancer patient Paul Giles travels to Brussels find out how the new TTIP trade deal could threaten NHS services http://www.redpepper.org.uk/video-the-secret-deal-that-threatens-the-nhs/

Happy Birthday NHS - 66 today!

UNISON Lanarkshire health Branch wishing our National Health Service a happy 66th birthday today.

UNISON WIN THE FIGHT TO PROTECT TERMS AND CONDITIONS

UNISON members along with other ISS employees would have received a letter on 2nd July from Toby Pryor, Divisional Director advising that “there have been a number of rumours circulating recently in relation to ISS affecting changes to the terms and conditions of employees working at Hairmyres Hospital. "I can appreciate this is unsettling and I am therefore taking the opportunity to write to you to assure you this is not the case.” Mr Pryor goes on to state that “while ISS have been in discussion with national union representatives in relation to sickness enhancements, these discussions have been solely in relation to England and as such have no impact to employees working with us in Scotland.” We don’t mean to be pedantic about Mr Pryor’s letter however for the sake of accuracy and to ensure there is no dubiety we have printed extracts from the letter dated 7th May received by UNISON on the back of this newsletter. Contained within those extracts you will see that ISS planned originally to introduce these cuts at a UK level on 1st June 2014, hoping that the trade unions at a UK level would accept their proposals, which would impact on staff in Scotland. ISS subsequently agreed to hold off until 1st August 2014. On receipt of this letter UNISON published a bulletin to all ISS members within Hairmyres and a general bulletin for all other NHS staff—who were very supportive—to bring to their attention the proposed attacks on terms and conditions. We also sent a letter (24th May) to ISS at a UK level advising that we would NOT be accepting any cuts to our members terms and conditions and if need be, would take all steps available to us to fight them, if as they suggested they decided to implement the cuts regardless of the trade union position. Our letter to ISS was also copied to the Chief Executive of NHS Lanarkshire and our Branch Chairperson, Lilian Macer also raised the issue with NHS Lanarkshire. On Monday 23rd June, two UNISON representatives attended a UNISON ISS meeting in London to discuss the planned attack on terms and conditions. At that meeting ISS re-iterated that this affected contracts in England and only one in Scotland. Following that meeting UNISON advised ISS that any planned changes to terms and conditions would need to be negotiated at a local level i.e. Hairmyres site. On Wednesday 25th June, UNISON Regional Organiser, Robert Rae received an email from Paul Cronin, Employee Relations Director of ISS inviting UNISON to a meeting on 18th July to discuss their proposals in more detail. On Friday 27th June, UNISON took the decision to send out a consultative ballot to its members within ISS seeking guidance on whether you would be willing to take industrial action to protect your terms and conditions. We also issued petitions to members and stewards to raise awareness across NHS Lanarkshire about the proposals to your fellow workers, in the event that you needed support to fight these issues industrially. We believe as a consequence of the pressure brought to bare by UNISON—no other trade union did anything publically—including the subsequent consultative ballot which made ISS reconsider their proposals. We remain convinced that what we outlined was going to happen had it not been for UNISON’s intervention on your behalf. Nothing that UNISON issued therefore was factually incorrect. **************************************************************************** Extract from ISS letter dated 7th May The proposals affect all those operatives—Porters, Housekeepers, Healthcare Cleaners, Security and Catering staff—employed on Afc terms and conditions of service who are contracted to work at weekends or who do so on rosters including weekend work undertaken other than in overtime. They are employed across all NHS Trusts in England (NHS Board in Scotland) in which we are the Soft Facilities Management contractor. Our preferred method of implementation is, by agreement with the unions on behalf of the workforce. However should this not be possible then we will need to consider our options for implementation which, as a last resort, may require imposition of the change in relation to all affected employees. Our proposed timescale is to achieve implementation by 1August 2014. Chris Ash Head of Healthcare **************************************************************************** Organising in ISS As a footnote to this whole issue there is another trade union organising within ISS however they did not contribute anything to the fight that we are aware of, other than piggy backing on UNISON raising the issue at an NHS Lanarkshire Partnership meeting on Monday 30th June. UNISON Lanarkshire Health Branch continues to work on behalf of its membership within ISS, and would encourage you get more involved with the branch. If you have an enquiry or wish to speak to the branch, or get more involved please get in touch. Contact details at the bottom.