The strike at ESNEFT is rising to a new level, with revelations of management duplicity, reports Matt Prior, striking Colchester Hospital Porter and Unison Rep

It should come as no surprise that Nick Hulme, Chief Exec of ESNEFT (East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust), is not admitting that he’s been caught out massively in a video from over five months ago taken outside a public meeting at Kesgrave. That somehow, despite repeatedly saying it’s a ‘done deal’ with regard to the possible outsourcing of all of us Soft FM (Facilities Management) staff at Colchester and Ipswich Hospitals, plus numerous other community sites around North Essex and East Suffolk, it was a mistake.

He claims it was all a misunderstanding and was about market testing, despite the fact that he doubled-down on the same statement at least three times in a near seven-minute video. This follows on from numerous glib statements from ESNEFT since our strikes began in August that have always ended the same way … No decision has yet been made. Well, this video makes a mockery of every single one of those claims.

It confirms what all of us knew ever since this possible privatisation got leaked in April. That unless we stood together and fought this, that we were just going to get sold out with no thought for our welfare and the effects it would have on our working conditions. Back to the dark old days of the porters, cleaners, caterers and all the other vital staff that help keep a hospital running smoothly behind the scenes, running on bare-minimum staffing levels. Never mind the fact that every single study that’s ever been done with regard to privatisation shows it brings no benefits at all. Particularly in the NHS.

The only people it ever benefits are the shareholders in whatever company is lined up to take us over. Certainly not the patients that are cared for every day within these hospitals. Certainly not the taxpayers, every single one of us, who contribute to our health services in every paycheque you ever get in your working lives. Certainly not the poor staff who are threatened with takeovers and the obvious decline in working conditions that come along with a company trying to squeeze a profit any way they can.

We, as the lowest-paid staff within ESNEFT are disgusted, but not surprised, by the revelations of this video. But the best part was still yet to come when a select few of us got to attend the last public board meeting that Hulme and the rest of the ESNEFT board held before the final decision is to be made behind closed doors on 5 December.

This is all very strange given that possible outsourcing, and the months of industrial action it has caused, was somehow not on the agenda. Weird that, considering how much money the trust has spent on trying to cover the strikers since August. A strike that’s not about gaining any extra pay or any other tangible benefits. It’s simply to stay as we are, as proud staff members of the NHS, rather than part of some faceless corporation who get to earn a tidy sum out of doing the job as middlemen, but doing it worse, to turn over a profit.

This board meeting, with the limited time we got to say anything and ask any questions, was just self-congratulatory nonsense. Repeated statements that we as staff have been consulted and agree with the plan were ridiculous. We were shut down whenever we raised a dissenting voice in those short fifteen minutes. Even a local Labour councillor, Fay Smalls, was given short shrift when trying to ask a question on our behalf.

Sir Bob Russell, who also came to support us and put his thoughts across, was also given the party line statement about no done deal. There are plenty of outside companies who are part of the NHS and whose staff still have NHS on their uniforms. But even Nick Hulme slipped in to admit that the only difference is that there will be a different name at the top of the paycheque.

And that’s why we’re fighting. We know very well what outsourcing is like, with a lot of us still remaining from the Carillion days prior to coming back in-house in at the end of 2012. The trust seems to think that we’re bluffing to a degree when Unison advised them that we were prepared to do a much longer period of strike action reaching far into December if the decision goes against us.

They somehow believe all our fight and resolve will melt away and disappear come a negative result after 5 December. If anything, that video and all the mistruths and deflections that come with it, has made the strikers want to take it further and go harder than before. We’ve now served ESNEFT with a strike notice that the members are going to be all out for three weeks from 25 November to 13 December, with the option to extend it to include Christmas and New Year’s if need be!

We need to make a stand and stem the tide of privatisation to keep our NHS public. As by chance and timing of the election, we’ve ended up being the first true litmus test for the new Labour government and a gauge for their true feelings towards future private-sector involvement in the NHS.

ESNEFT will soon see we’re prepared to do whatever it takes to fight and save our jobs. As, if we don’t, then who knows how many other trusts will go the same way! Bring it on. Solidarity.

You can support ESNEFT strikers by:

1. Getting down to the picket lines at Colchester Hospital from 25 November – 13 December. Follow @UnisonEastern for latest updates
2. Send messages of solidarity from yourself and/or your trade union branch to [email protected]
3. Donate to their strike fund at UNISON Colchester & Ipswich Area Health, UNITY Bank, Sort code: 60-83-01; Account number: 20403881, Reference: STRIKE
4. Sign the petition
5. Write to your MP asking them to act