AMBULANCE DRIVERS: Ca Reject this bid to isolate London hospital workers

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Send to Socialist Press, 31, Dartmouth Park Hil, London NUPE PIGKET LONDON DIVISION The dangers of NUPE's policy of 'selective action' in pursuit of the public sector pay claim have become more obvious over the past week, as full-time officials have consistently attempted to isolate and sell out the strikes in London's hospitals.

Last Thursday, the strike at St. Andrew's Hospital in East London was ended after two weeks, and the )ER PAY Pickets two St. George's Hospitals, in Hyde Park Corner and Tooting voted to continue with selective action, after being on strike for over a week.

These hospitals, and many others in London, have clearly shown their willingness to continue with all-out action in pursuit of the pay claim if they are given the slightest lead by their full-time officials.

Confronted

Instead of working spread the strikes, howe CHUNGEN outside St Andrews Hospital the bureaucrats have done everything in their power to end all-out action and isolate the struggles in individual hospitals.

An example of this was given when Steve Seegar, NUPE branch secretary at St. Andrews spoke at a mass meeting at St. Mary's Hospital, Harrow Road to urge them to stay out on strike alongside his own hospital.

He was immediately confronted with a GMWU fulltime official who argued for a return to work, saying that St. Mary's had 'done its bit' after a week's strike and they should let somebody else have a turn.

If the low pay campaign is to grow in strength, then hospital • workers and stewards must be prepared for an all out fight against the policies and actions of their own full-time officials, who have shown consistent fear and hatred of working class solidarity.

High points in the struggle were reached when the London Divisional Council of NUPE • were forced to reach a decision on calling all-out action in the London area, and the call was defeated only by the Chairman's casting vote.

And when strikers from the . Westminster • Hospial lobbied a meeting of the NUPE Executive demanding that they used their power to spread the strikes throughout London Hospitals, the whole. campaign seemed on the verge of victory.

Out of step

But the NUPE bureaucracy have shown time after time that they have no intention of calling for the action necessary to win the full claim.

At : no time has the treachery of the public sector union leadership been so out of step with the . militancy of their own membership.

It is• now vital that branches already on strike should form local strike committees and councils of action to spread all-out strike action. hearted proposals-such as an overtime ban which has already proved more costly to the workers than a complete stoppage.

Narrowly defeated

At a national meeting in Birmingham of ambulance stewards, there was an excellent opportunity to strengthen and co-ordinate the campaign; but a resolution for all-out strike was narrowly defeated.

It is now obvious however, that 'shows of strength' and disruptive action are not sufficient to win the claim-nor should ambulance drivers be tricked into accepting a bogus comparability scheme which links them to the other emergency services, and which will probably include a no-strike clause.

Weakness

Their own leaders have repeatedly shown their weakness when faced with Callaghan's threats to bring in the army-even though the army cannot possibly cope with a national ambulance strike.

Now there is a danger that they will attempt to reach a settiement which seperates them from other public sector workers in the same pay claim.

As well as this, they have attempted to confuse and demoralise the membership at every stage of the negotiations.

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The strike should be linked to other workers in hospitals and local boroughs in the same pay claim through the building of Councils of Action.

The union bureaucracy should be forced to support the building of these links, instead of allowing the different sections in the low pay campaign to be separated and drawn drawn into different sell-out settlements.

After two consecutive weeks of short strikes at Oxford hospitals, 200 workers at the Radcliffe Infirmary have overwhelmingly called for joint unlimited strikes by all NUPE members together.

The call came as NUPE further fragmented action in the county. Even as the hospital workers were calling for united action ambulance drivers were being persuaded to resume transfering patients from one hospital to another to ease the effects of a nursing shortage at the Radcliffe!

The meeting at the hospital instructed the branch chairman, Pat Ward, to call for the all-out action at a weekly meeting of branch officers and officials. 10 ISSUES POST FREE! :

would like to take advantage of this n below. d me 10

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For a clear lead in the

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EIGHT BLINDFOLD PRESS struggle against

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200 call for unity