Hospital workers faced with outsourcing are fighting back and taking to the streets, reports Louis Bailey 

Around 200 cheerful NHS workers and their supporters in purple ponchos and waving Unison flags, battling the rainy English weather, took to the streets last Saturday 19^th to demand that the NHS in Colchester hospital keep their ancillary workers in house.

The workers at East Sussex and North Essex Foundation Trust have been striking since August over plans to outsource their jobs. As the workers have argued, the result of their jobs being handed to serial outsourcing companies will result in the deterioration of their conditions and pay and is a worse deal for the NHS.

According to marchers the mood was high on the days of strike, with big picket lines, music playing and support coming from in and outside the hospital. To escalate their fight and bring together all the support they’ve been receiving, the strikers called a mass rally and march in Colchester.

As the march assembled, speeches began in the pouring rain with an emotional story by one of the workers who had been sick off work and due to the outsourcing contract was not paid, he had to rely on the kindness of fellow workers to bring him food and support through the dark time. He declared through tear-filled eyes that as he was supported through his struggles, he would be out with the workers come rain, come shine.

The general mood of the strikers and supporters was one of solidarity and a determination to keep the momentum up. Speeches and encouragement continued from various Unison officers. From the national Unison office, the general theme was of rallying everyone and assuring that they had the backing of the whole union.

On the march, the protesters whistled and chanted and cars beeping in support was the chorus of the march. There was a joyful atmosphere and you could feel that these workers were positively welcomed and cared for by the community that they had cared for.

When we arrived in the city centre we moved onto the streets and off the pavement, the atmosphere visibly lifted and chants of ‘In-house is best, keep us NHS’ filled the Saturday morning. As the day wrapped up, the energy was high, and workers left feeling connected and ready to push on in their fight to save the NHS.

These people that have built their lives around serving their communities through maintaining the hospital are having their lives stripped away from them. It is not just numbers but people. But the striking workers and those who travelled from across the region and beyond to support them are acutely aware of the importance of their fight, not just for their jobs but for the future of the NHS.

When a slimy Wes Streeting decides that a ‘tough decision’ needs to be made it translates to outsourcing of workers and handing more public money to private companies. Labour’s stance of privatising the NHS is not just an abstract debate, it is a deliberate and political choice that ruins working people’s lives to fulfil big business’s dreams of making a profit off our health and wellbeing.

Support the striking workers wherever and whenever you can, these people are deserving of their jobs staying within the NHS and basic working conditions and pay parity. This is a fight for the rights of all workers and for the whole NHS.