HAMMERSMITH hospital workers on the picket line on 6 August during an official National Union of Public Employees strike. The four-day strike was in support of seven administrative and clerical workers who were already taking action against These members of NUPE had taken at face value the words of Alan Fisher, General Secretary of NUPE, about opposing the cuts with 'guerilla tactics' by refusing to cover for absent colleagues. With cuts of £1.2 million threatened in the Ealina, Hounslow and Hammersmith area in this financial vear alone, action against cuts through natural wastage of staff and freezing of vacancies is vital. The strike's main demand was tor no victimisation or workers carrying out orricial national union The support that it gained from other unions, including ASTMS inside the hospital, Transport & General members at the large Unigate depot, and building workers on nearby sites was very important. To further build the campaign against the cuts both inside and outside the NHS, a lobby is being organised for the September meeting of the Area Health Authority which will be giving the green lignt to une cuts. A public meeting and an area-wide demonstration are also being maternity home before 1980/81, and would inevitably mean mass redund'views of the Joint Staff Committeebut not the views of the workers directly affected. They were given a deadline of 6 August to present their views, but the document was sprung on them so quickly they didn't have time to say a word!
Despite the deadline, the Norwich Health District Committee along with Norwich Trades Council promptly picketed the offices of the AHA, which was meeting to discuss the redundancy notices served on 27 nurses at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. After Ms. Evelyn Baillie works at Darlington Memorial Hospital. Recent industrial action led to the closure of part of an inadequately staffed ward. This stand came after patients at the Memorial Hospital suffered tragic consequences as a result of staff shortages:
four patients in the psychiatrie wing died -from drowning in a bath, asphyxiation from a stolen van's exhaust fumes, an overdose of drugs, and from being burnt to death in bed. These unnatural deaths in the hospital, together wit a run m apra wus year, were the result of too few nurses and staff trying to cope with the number of patients."
An independent inquiry into the deaths blamed administrative complac ency, but another report from the Durham Area Health Authority tried to put part of the blame on the nursing staff! That was the final straw for NUPE members, who were sick of bearing the brunt of the Government's refusal to pay for sufficient nurses and *A psychiatric wing in particular needs adequate 24 ow supervision y bution to make."
The document was passed onto the sunauve CommEEtee STEPHEN PAGE ...E Darlington 'In the space of 27 davs last summer on an 'unlucky
6 Southern Africa South Africa continues to be rocked by the most massive black uprisings in its history. Throughout the country (most recently in Cape Town), African students and workers have defied police bullets and poured into the streets to express their hatred of the Red Weekl
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*RADUATE MEDIC SI HAMMER DISTR