THE NATIONAL demonstration called by the health unions for July 29 to press their pay dispute should be a rallying point for everyone fighting the Tory offensive on the NHS.
More than a million workers have rejected an insulting 1% offer coupled to another 2% with local strings attached, and are battling in defence of the national agreements which underpin their pay and conditions. If these are broken, staff in each Trust will be left to fight in isolation for their pay demands: there would be no more nationwide action.
However it appears that many national union leaders have already effectively given up the fight.
Instead of building up the real anger by encouraging local branches to stage protest strikes which could stimulate a 1988-style wave of action, UNISON and other key unions seem to be trying their best to damp it all Three weeks before the July demo. there are still hardly any leaflets or posters promoting it. Even the venue has been left out of the skimpy leaflets sent to UNISON stewards.
The dispute has been dragged on in hopes that members will get fed up and throw in the towel, or the Royal College of Nursing will let the unions off the hook by striking a squalid deal.
But it's still not too late to turn the tide.
There are three weeks left in which health workers and all those trade unionists and Labour activists who support them can mobilise a real show of strength on July 29.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 87, July 15 1995, Page 2