IWW Scotland

From the Greenock Telegraph: http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/article.php?sec=1&id=16826

Hospital Workers Back IRH Strike

by Lorraine Tinney

HOSPITAL workers at Inverclyde Royal have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action over car parking charges.

A staggering 87 per cent of staff across Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board said they would walk out if tolls aren’t scrapped. Unison held a postal ballot to crank up pressure on health secretary Nicola Sturgeon to reverse her decision to charge staff up to £7 a day for using hospital car parks.

The strike vote means that up to 1,000 union members at Inverclyde Royal including nurses, porters and lab technicians could bring the hospital to a standstill.

Raymond O’Donoghue, unison divisional convener in Inverclyde, said: “This shows the strength of opinion over charges that so many workers would go on strike.

“Staff do not want this and the public certainly don’t want it.

“It is very hard to get people to vote in postal ballots and there was a 40 per cent turnout which means around 6,000 voted which is phenomenal.”

But he stressed that patients wouldn’t suffer if staff did walk out.

He said: “We would take sensible action – we are not in the business of hurting patients. Strike action is always a last resort.”

Unison bosses also collected 1,000 printed letters signed by staff and the public in Inverclyde objecting to proposals and took them through to Edinburgh yesterday to hand over in person to the health secretary.

A spokesperson for Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said: “It is disappointing that Unison would threaten patient care by balloting for strike action.

“Unison nationally is already part of a Government and NHS led review of hospital car parking across Scotland and it therefore seems inappropriate timing to ballot for local strike action. This however, is a matter for the local branch of Unison.

“It would be interesting to find out exactly who has been balloted in this case as it appears that many staff, based on sites where parking charges are already in effect, have not been balloted.

“Our primary objective is to ensure that patients, visitors and staff who need a car to carry out vital NHS duties can park at our hospitals when they need to. As an employer we have no obligation to offer all staff free parking without any constriction.

“NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is fully complying with national Scottish guidance to NHS Boards on car parking charges and we are doing nothing different from other NHS organisations faced with the same problems on their busy hospital sites.”