Boycott Ennals'EGA post mortem
Socialist Press1978 1978-06-21Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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During the last week, the reasons for Health Minister Ennals' postponement of the closure of the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital on the Euston Road, until after 21 July have become clear.
He has been forced to make a temporary retreat, but only in order to try and defuse the movement against the closure; to try to get the closure more easily and to absorb the EGA as a unit into some other part of the hospital system.
On June 15, Ennals said in Parliament that the enquiry he now proposed to have was not about whether the EGA should be closed, but on how it should be moved elsewhere.
This statement is in clear contradiction to the recollection of the stewards who met him a week before when the postponement was announced.
The stewards saw the enquiry proposed by Ennals as a method of arguing for the extension of the facilities provided by the hospital and the long-postponed mending of the lift. Ennals enquiry, organise to get further support for the EGA's facilities and prepare industrial action for the next inevitable closure date.
The importance of trade union action needs to be emphasised throughout the campaign.
The resolutions passed on this in the South Camden Joint Shop Stewards C'ommittee and St. Paneras COHSE for strike action in the event of closure, clearly represented important steps in this direction. EGA after Ennal's original announcement of closure produced a large demonstration on 14 June in their support before the disciplinary hearing.
Most of those involved had received a warning' following on their suspension, thus making it more likely they will be sacked should they take further action.
The EBS stewards remain unrepentent, however, and are determined to do the same in the event of other threatened closures at the Bethnal Green Hospital and elsewhere.
*During the EBS dispute management tried to get Ansaphones installed but they were blacked by the National Executive of the Post Office. Engineering Union and the ordinary phones have had to be manned by supervisors.