FIFTY-THREE UNISON members at Hillingdon Hospital will have been on strike for one year on October I against cuts in their pay and conditions by private contractors Pall Mall.
Most of the (mainly asian) women have worked for Hillingdon hospital for over 20 years in low-paid employment caring for ordenes.
The strikem have been sub. jected to racist abuse and violence on the picket line.
But they have also faced Indifference at best, and hostility and sabotage at worst, from UNI. SON's leadership and officials.
In June 1996, Pall Mall offered them £125,000 to settle the disnute il in a secret ballot ther overwhelmingly reiected this of. fer, wanting their jobs back on deront conditions.
Nearly a year on, the strikers are still as determined as ever to continue their fight for reinstatement on their old terms.
A resolution initiated by the Campaign for a Fighting and Democratic UNISON (CFDU) calling for further solidarity actions and publicity was adopted unanimously by this year's UNISON conference.
But this was only the start of the battle to get support. The NEC and officials have had to be pressurised conanuously to act on the conference decision.