WHAT’S HAPPENING?
During the pandemic, security guards at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) worked day in, day out to keep the hospital and its patients safe and secure. They continue to do so as we enter a difficult winter.
They have been asking for the same working conditions as others in the building. You would too if you were doing the same job - or sometimes more. But GOSH management are refusing to even meet with them, so after many attempts to establish dialogue, they have been left with no choice.
“We are going to strike because we feel that we have not been treated fairly and we’ve been discriminated against,” said Samuel Awittor, who has worked at GOSH for more than 7 years as one of the security personnel there.
THE DISPUTE
The cleaners’ union, United Voices of the World Union (UVW), has long argued that management at GOSH should not treat outsourced workers as second-class citizens and that treating them as such exposes institutional racism at the Trust.
UVW says all workers at the NHS are essential and that all workers in the NHS have the right to the same terms and conditions.
After failed attempts to engage with the board of Trustees at the hospital, this month, security guards asked UVW to ballot them for strike action. The vote was unanimous: 100% voted to take to the picket line.
Worker’s power happens with solidarity.
Please give generously to help GOSH security to win equality with the rest of the NHS staff!