Saturday, December 26, 2009

COHSE Guildford 1333 Banner


COHSE Guildford & District 1333 branch banner, (Royal Surrey County hospital, st Luke's Hospital, Milford hospital, Hydestyle hospital. hospital sheet circa 1981 made for Peoples' March for Jobs. White sheet, blue lettering.

Top picture COHSE banner carried on national demonstration 22nd September 1982 and below (black & white) carried on CND demo 1981.

COHSE Branch Secretary Carles Martinez

COHSE Brent Banner


COHSE Student Nurses leading the COHSE Brent (Central Middlesex Hospital) 670 branch banner during 1982 hospital campaign.

Traditional hospital sheet.

COHSE Wales Banner

Early 1980's COHSE Wales banner (one of a series of Regional COHSE banners of the period produced nationally) Centre Denbeigh born , Welsh speaker and registered nurse and COHSE. General Secretary David Williams

COHSE Lancashire Banner



COHSE Banner North West Region 3 Banner

COHSE Claybury Banner

COHSE Claybury branch banner with the famous "rat leaving the Asylum" at the bottom of the banner.

Does anyone know what happended to the banner last seen at the merger into UNISON in 1993
.

COHSE Region 6 Banner

COHSE North West Thames & Oxford Region 6 Banner, with Red phenoix and red flags and slogan Agitate: Educate: Organise made by Chippenham design Circa 1984.

Below national COHSE Banner

COHSE Banner's 1991


Robert Quick, Regional Secretary with COHSE banner of South Yorkshire and East midlands Region 12, Made by Red Wedge, Brighton Red and Gold
Sharrow Head, Sheffield.COHSE Banner Cymru Region 10 - Wales made by Dragon Banners Yorkshire. COHSE banner Unveiled by Hector MacKenzie COHSE General secretary Cardiff 1991.

Claybury branch banner is one of the finest COHSE branch banners, as it illustrates a rat leaving the "Asylum".

Saturday, December 19, 2009

1982 TUC Regional Day's of Action - Never Again

TUC REGIONAL DAYS OF ACTION


As part of the 1982 Pay campaign a TUC series of Regional Day of Action was throughout the UK and the South East Region was held at Guildford.

Those attending were primarily COHSE nurses from Guildford Royal Surrey County Hospital, Milford and larger Psychiatric hospitals in the Region, where COHSE was dominant.

It should be noted that these Regional Day's of Action were a complete disaster and should never be repeated
.



The 1982 Health workers campaign was finally called off on the eve of the infamous Transport strike planned for 8th November (Which never took place).

Thursday, December 10, 2009

New Zealand Hospital Workers Fight Pay Freeze


'Lift the Freeze on Low Pay', rally in Auckland, 27th November 2009. Part of a national day of action in 27 towns and cities across New Zealand to demand an end to the wage freeze on low paid public and community sector workers in schools, community organisations, hospitals and the public service.

More than 6,000 hospital service workers and community support workers were on strike.

John Ryall General Secretary of SFWU
, New Zealand

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Big Bonuses in the City - Nurses Face Pay Freeze

Stand up to Bankers' Blackmail

Thursday 03 December 2009

Unison leader Dave Prentis has said bankers should "come down to earth and realise their world has changed"

Unison leader Dave Prentis has said bankers should "come down to earth and realise their world has changed"

Trade unions have urged the government to reject Royal Bank of Scotland bosses' blackmail and call their bluff over massive bonus plans.

The bank's board has threatened to quit if the Treasury blocks plans to pay out bonuses to its staff to the tune of £1.5 billion, despite having had to be bailed out to the tune of billions of pounds by the taxpayer.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber warned that the threats proved that nothing had been learned from the economic collapse only last year.

"The banks nearly brought down the whole economy only a year ago. Few would have survived without government or Bank of England help," he said.

"Yet now we learn that they are back to the bad old days when they confused their telephone numbers with what they were paid.

"Surely there must be a limit to the amount of champagne that even a banker can consume in a year?"

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis described directors at the bank a "disgrace" and called on them to "come down to Earth and realise their world has changed."

He said that, despite banks and financial institutions causing a collapse that has forced many thousands onto the dole, plenty of those claiming benefits would be happy to be able to find a fair day's work for a fair day's pay.

"It is outrageous that millionaire bankers are trying to blackmail taxpayers into paying them multimillion-pound bonuses," added Unison Greater London nursing officer Michael Walker at the union's London Nursing Conference in Lewisham.

"Nurses on many wards could state that, without a significant pay rise, they may be forced to leave nursing and therefore patient care could suffer.

"Yet nurses are not offered a pay rise, they are facing the threat of a pay freeze from millionaire Tories."

And Left Economics Advisory Panel co-ordinator Andrew Fisher added: "The government should respond to this blackmail with one word. Goodbye."

But the government responded with very mixed signals.

Chancellor Alistair Darling warned that he was prepared to veto the size of the bank's bonus pool after City Minister Lord Myners warned that at least 5,000 bankers would pocket more than £1 million each this year unless action was taken.

Lord Myners said there was "precious little evidence" that people at the top of the banks appreciated the "concern about these extraordinary levels of income."

He called on major shareholding institutions to tackle the issue immediately, before it was too late.

However, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson struck a different note, expressing support for the board and appearing to contradict the earlier stance taken by the Treasury.

"I understand the point of view that Royal Bank of Scotland directors are expressing - they have to remain competitive in the market in recruiting senior executives," he said, adding that bonuses "form an integral part" of remuneration packages for senior staff, although he urged banks to exercise restraint voluntarily.

A spokesman for the bank merely claimed that bonuses were necessary to operate in "competitive markets."


Morning Star