[Trom Ine local unoc Uldren when the AhA…]

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Trom Ine local unoc Uldren when the AhA met In set up a support committee to September, they were unable to involve the local community, take the secret decision they hospital workers and League had intended. ! of Friends and all trade union- They were forced instead to This committee took up hold a series of public meetings demands in all these bodies that in all the local towns concerned thè newly built Witney Hospital to "discover the public's views"

It called for practical AHA's phoney 'options' of cuts, support for the Longworth the public in every town refused workers who declared they to be divided into supporting "LOOK IVE TOLD YOU BEFORE! THE UNGONS WERE ONLY BUNCT THROUGH!

SACRIFICE - NO YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY MORE STRIKE PAY!

Longworth Hospital, a 50-bed geriatric hospital in the Oxfordshire - Vale of IlLida Lanen indor throat vynite nurst, unuers uncar of closure since last summer has been at the centre of a campaign to stop health service cuts and to improve the desperate shortfall of health facilities for old people.

Public meetings initiated

Lem the lam ARUCE hranch ists in stopping the closure.

must open fully without sacrificing other hospitals. UNION DUES would continue working there to stop the hospital closing.

It was agreed that support should take the form of industrial action if the Area Health Authority moved to close it and also in exposing the shortfall of geriatric services.

Alongside this, the committee tried to begin to expose the accounts of the AHA -including profits siphoned from it by private firms.

Because of this campaign, AL-- «I A scrap their secret paper, and to With the support committee showing an alternative to the public's hostility to their 'options' Faced with a lobby of Trade Unionists from Longworth and Oxford Hospitals they could not use their customary method of making decisions on sensitive issues behind closed doors.

Instead they held a serious debate in open session-though they never considered the health needs beyond their tight budgetary limits.

Longworth. Both in-patient and day-patient facilities would stay; they promised, until the Regional Authority could fund 1) the complete opening of Witney as a community hospital and 2) building of a day-care centre somewhere in the Vale of White Horse. After this, Longworth would close.

A partial reprieve then-but with a further delay in opening a needed community hospital.

The fight goes on now. with new determination.

FRANKLY, O FISHALL, THE TORIS HUH! "SUPPOSE THAT WALL COULD WIN THIS TIME! GIVE THMT WRETCHED SHOP FLOOR LOT SOMETHING ELSE TO WHINE ABOUT!

Finally the National Nurses and Midwives Council unilaterally accepted the pay offer on behalf of the membership without even going through the motions of balloting the section as happened with every other group in the pay claim.

Strength

Potentially nurses have tremendous strength as a group of workers in the fight for a decent wage and in defence of the NHS against the cuts.

It is for this reason alone that they have been offered £1.50 more than the other groups in the claim.

The union bureaucracy and the government realise that a strike by nurses could possibly restart the whole action on pay in the public sector.

It is obvious that the only way nurses can defend their living standards and improve working conditions is by becoming members of a trade union that is completely independent of management.

But the increasing number of nurses that are joining NUPE and other unions must be fully aware of the fight they must take up against the betrayals of the leadership.

Nursing stewards and militants throughout the BUT THEN - WITHOUT JIM IN OFFICE, IT WILL BE EVEN HARDER TO KEEP THEM QUIET ...THIS CALLS FOR ACTION longer annual leave, and an escalator clause.

The 8% has been agreed by the Post Uttice, but the management deal still leaves unconsolidated the 7% wage rise of 1977.

The demands for shorter hours, longer holidays and limited protection of wages against inflation have ali been sunk without trace.

In their place the bureaucrats have negotiated a productivity deal that offers postal workers nothing but useless hopes of cash payouts in exchange for speed-up.

But Jackson has not stopped at this rotten sell out.

Jackson ERE ALL LOW PAID-SO DON'T IE BLEATING FOR UMON SUPPORT!

WAIT ano ·150,000 WOWLYOU L SURE YOU CAN AFFORD IT? WELL PUT AND ALL M NO SACR datory branch meetings in working hours.

Their action was in protest at the long delay over the pay negotiations.

Because of huge staff shortages throughout the Post Office-caused by low pay and bad conditions-these limited actions had a crippling effect on the postal service.

Militancy

They soon spread to other/ areas, and the Executive is now trying to "persuade' members back to work, to vote on their recommendation.

The militancy in the larger offices will mean a heavy vote against the offer in the branch ballot later this month.

But rejection of the sell out must go alongside an alternative way forward for postal workers.

Branches must begin to take up immediately a serious fight to replace the existing bureaucrats and officers, by pasing votes of censure on the Executive.

A special delegate conference must be called to decide on. what action is necessary to win the union's full claim.

And meanwhile, the unofficial action . should continue and be extended to new areas, AND YOU CAN CLEAR OFF AS WELL... OHCIPATION"

IY OTHER QUANGO COMMIT TEES— IFICE IS TOO GREAT FOR MY MEMBERS!

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SOCIALIST SOCIALIST

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Metall AT THE

$60 35 HOURS

TRADE UNION OFFICE PLEASE

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LABOUR PARTY EH? COME ON IN COMRADE! IT THIS WAY: TO SAVE PARTI