NUPE/UNISON TV 1991

Trade unions are increasingly thinking seriously about the use of video to get their messages across to their members, potential members and to the public.

Both NUPE and NALGO now have experience of production and a range of applications.

NALGO, I understand, has so far limited itself mainly to top-quality production working out at about £1,000 a minute, but of late it has also produced a couple of 'cheap and cheerful' videos for short-life use.

Like other unions NALGO has been particularly concerned about the difficult problem of getting branches to use the videos that are available.

In 1984 NUPE took its video-production programme a stage farther by establishing an 'in-house' facility, and at the same time was able to tackle the problem of distribution and use.

It was evident to us that, at costs ranging from £15,000 to £50,000 from specialist producers, few unions could afford to produce many videos. And if few were produced, it would be impossible to build a video 'culture' within the union.

To build that culture we needed to create an expectancy in our members, by regularly delivering videos on a range of subjects and issues. That, in turn,  would encourage the organisation of opportunities to use the tapes.

The 'in-house' facility comprises a small studio equipped to film, edit and copy tapes. Each of our 11 NUPE divisions was also supplied with video-cassette  recorders and television monitors to encourage and  facilitate the viewing of tapes.

The overall cost of all this was around the price of two middle-of-the-range commercially produced tapes,  and it has already paid for itself through the videos we have made and other uses to which the equipment has been put.

Apart from reducing the production cost, our own facilities have given us the benefits of flexibility and  immediacy of production. The tapes we have produced so far include productions on women in the union and on combating racism, campaigning tapes on key issues such as the health service and the political fund ballot, and information tapes on changes in local government manual pay.

Whenever we produce a tape, we issue discussion notes or work-books, so that the tapes are used  actively and collectively and not viewed individually and passively.

We use close-circuit television at our national conference and video-record the proceedings. That  not only provides a complete record; it also enables us to create edited compilations for use on courses,showing potential and new delegates how conference  works and encouraging them to participate in debates.

A video library has been set up at Head Office, with over 300 titles available on free loan to branches, with a catalogue and a leaflet to branches keeping  members aware of what's available. A viewer's record  card is sent out with every tape borrowed, and from this  we can monitor the use and value of the tapes.

Now we are developing a programme of media training for key members and officers of the union.

We are hoping also to produce a quarterly 'NUPE.News' video, about 15-20 minutes long, dealing with the 'topics of the day'. It would have a national flavour, but include a regional slot for presenting a key development or dispute.  

The material gathered for the news video could also be used in other videos used for campaigning  purposes. 

Individual items could provide the basis for 5-to-10-minute campaign or information tapes.  For example, the footage shot for a 3-minute item on water privatisation in the news tape could be used for a range of tapes on specific issues - for anglers, conservationists and consumer groups, as well as for members. In this way we can make interesting, thematic and continuous use of material instead of confining ourselves to the occasional tape on a specific issue in isolation from other developments.

 I would go farther and argue that the trade union movement needs to-be even more adventurous and take advantage, through video, of developments in satellite and cable TV.   But that must be the subject of a separate article.

Jim Sutherland NUPE Education Officer
December 1991

Hector MacKenzie on the new union 1991

 

Hector Mackenzie COHSE

December 1991

Changes in health care and in COHSE itself have made it a very different union to the one it once was, says general secretary Hector MacKenzie, who sees the creation of a new union with NUPE and NALGO as the next stage in that development.

From a fairly small organisation concentrated in the 'Cinderella' psychiatric and mental handicap hospitals, COHSE has grown to encompass people working throughout the health care sector.

At the same time, it has become more political, more conscious of the need to reflect the concerns of its over-whelmingly female membership and more anxious to ensure that services are targeted at every union member.

With a sound financial base, the ability to speak directly to members and activists and an enviable range of industrial, professional and political services, COHSE has become an organisation capable of taking proactive decisions, anticipating and shaping developments instead of simply reacting.

It is that ability which led COHSE this year to enter talks
with NUPE and NALGO on the creation of a new public services union.

Over the next few years, the arena in which we organise will change out of all recognition. The shift from hospital to community care is already breaking up the large institutions. Divisions between the NHS, social services, the voluntary and the private sectors are blurring.

National pay bargaining is gradually being devolved. And the demands placed on unions by a changing workforce are shifting in emphasis as large numbers of women re-enter the workforce and part-time jobs increase.

All of this demands an imaginative response. We need a new union capable of encompassing all those working in the public services and of responding to their disparate needs, quickly, efficiently and without bureaucratic delay.

We envisage a union in which the basic local building block, the branch, can be tailored to meet the specific needs of a workplace as small as a group home and as large as a district general hospital.

This means abandoning some of our 'hallowed' institutions, such as the compulsory monthly branch meeting,in favour of a less formal organisation which-recognises that diversity of needs and revolves around a workplace 'patch' with union representatives responsible to the branch for their own patch.


We see regions developing a new facilitating role as
both a resource and an administrative centre, but making sure there is no bureaucratic block in the union decision-making structure.

There should be a national tier of perhaps four key
groups, of which health and personal social services
would be one, with their own autonomous policy-making powers and the ability to direct their own finances. There should be professional advisory panels and consultative conferences for groups such as nurses, ambulance personnel and social workers, and new ways of developing policies through working parties and even ballots.

We also want to see a top tier encompassing all mem-
bers and providing central services, holding the membership register and with overall responsibility for the finances and resources of the union.

Having seen other unions grow large and get things wrong, we should learn from their mistakes. We mustavoid an overwhelming bureaucracy in which no decisions can ever be made and initiative is stifled. We must avoid competing power blocks in which regions and trade groups struggle for supremacy to the detriment of the whole union. And we must avoid simply lumping in all the old practices and structures of all three unions. 

In short, there cannot and must not simply be a larger version of COHSE, NUPE or NALGO; we need a new union.

Barcelona Hospital Occupation

Nurses and Health workers at Sant Pau Hospital Barcelona have occupied their hospital and running it effectiveely since 28th November 20012

The occupation action at Sant Pau has been a spark in developing anti-cuts movements, involving neighbourhood and other activist groups, at hospitals throughout Catalunya. Occupations have sprung up at the region's biggest hospital, Vall d'Hebrón, and the Clínic Hospital. 

In the words of one prominent health activist, it's about creating "a white Catalan tide similar to that which exists in Madrid". The beginnings of such a tidal movement have literally covered Barcelona in the white of doctors' and nurses' gowns during marches organised by the various occupation committees.

Harpenden Hospital Occupation 1985

COHSE midwives occupied the Harpenden Memorial hospital for two weeks in February-March 1985 in order to stop the sacking and transfer of Midwives at the Hospital. 

The Unit was due to close on February 28th 1985, however staff with community support occupied the hospital.

 All management were refused admission unless it was on clinical grounds. 

The occupation secured wide support from the community and local GP's

The Occupation secured jobs for all Midwives on the closure of the Harpenden Memorial Hospital 8 beded Midwifery Unit and a say in the future provision of GP maternity services

COHSE Kumar Sandy Regional Officer paid tribute to those who had supported COHSE members in their fight "We now know that any threatened hospital can be run by the staff. We gathered 3,500 signatures on a petition in two weeks. And now we know how to set up and run an occupation....As a result of our sit-in the health authority was forced to meet COHSE's demands for alternative jobs for the midwives"

Daphne Hutchins COHSE steward at the hospitals stated

 "There is a vast difference between a GP run maternity unit and working in a consultant unit"

"The mother comes in relaxed, there is a friendly atmosphere and the midwives build up a rapport with the women. here the midwives look after the mothers all the way through and wave good-bye on the door step" 

Cane Hill Hospital Work-In August 1976

 Cane Hill Hospital Sit-In
Cane Hill Hospital Occupation
 
wins 40 more Nurses
18-21 August 1976


An allocation of ten additional nurses for each day of action - that's the balance COHSE nursing at Cane Hill hospital, Surrey are making of their four days of struggle.

Steps are also being taken to fill vacant posts for unqualified staff, and action is now being considered on an area or regional basis to deal with massive under-staffing.

From 18 to 21 August, staff at the psychiatric hospital in Coulsdon, Surrey, provided emergency service
only.

With laundry and linen rooms shut, no domestic services, and no occupational or industrial therapy.
many staff were in effect sitting-in.

Care of patients was restricted to their basic physical needs, with a total ban on new admissions. Drivers
were available for emergency duties only.

 After at first refusing to even discuss Cane Hill's chronic under-staffing, Bromley AHA's eventual offer of more nurses for the hospital was forced up to 40 at a meeting on 21 August.When this was put to a mass
meeting of staff, there was a narrowmajority in favour of calling off the industrial action.

'We would have backed a strike all the way,' says COHSE branch chairperson W Glynne John.

'We want two hundred more nursing staff across the psychiatric division, and if the discussions the
AHA has now agreed to hold do not result in a big improvement, we will seriously consider further action.

'The staffing situation in the whole of the area and region is scandalous,' Glynne adds, 'and we are now looking to action at this level.'

Neighbouring Surrey Area Health Authority appealed last March for £2,250,000 for desperately needed psychiatric
staff. Instead, its budget has been cut by £2 millions.

Advertisements have already been placed for Cane Hill's 40 nurses, who will increase the complement to 610.


The four days' action also resulted in: full information on staffing estabishment and costs; prior agreement
before staff are moved; proposals for local consultation procedures; and improvements in the pay system.

COHSE branch leadership included W Glynne John, COHSE stewards Colin Brown and Roy Brown, and Regional Secretary Bob Harmes 

Picture is from the Morning Star of Cane Hill Hospital nursing staff at a mass meeting 18 August 1976.

Brookwood Hospital Occupation 1978

The public must be made aware that there is a desperate staffing problem and that more money must be made available to the health service.' These words from Joe Fleming COHSE Branch secretary and chairperson of the Workers Council of Brookwood Hospital 1978.
 
Hospital, highlights what many of us in the Health Service face with the carrying out of the cuts.

Management at Brookwood have consistently refused to employ more nurses. Out of an establishment of 805,
only 420 staff are in post. On many occasions there was one trained nurse iivcharge of three wards and having to
give out drugs on their own.

The grievances at. Brookwood have piled up over several years. Complaints range from waiting three weeks for a new washer to the Divisional Nursing Officer issuing orders to ward sisters telling them when nurses should take
their tea-breaks. When proper consultation  revealed  that  more staff were needed, management simply withdrew
from the procedure.

But staff were most angry at the raising of the nursery charges. COHSE had an agreement with management
that if there was any proposals to increase prices they should be consulted. They weren't. That was when
hospital staff decided that they would run the hospital more efficiently and without all the aggravation of manage-
ment.

A Workers Council was formed and consists of all the stewards and branch officers in the hospital, plus the NUPE
branch secretary and a steward from the District General Hospital at Frimley Park.

Within two weeks of staff taking this action,  the Area  Health  Authority agreed to hold an enquiry into the grievance. But most important is the setting up of the Joint Brookwood Hospital  Committee  comprising  an  equal number of staff and management representatives, to deal with all matters affecting  services  and  facilities  at Brookwood  Hospital  and  staff employed within the Division of Psychiatry.

Brookwood have shown that it pays to dare to take action when you know it's right.

COHSE Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital May 1986

COHSE Bethlem & Maudsley branch campaign demonstration on 12 May 1986

Royal Surrey COHSE Student Nurses 1982

TUC Demo 20th October 2012 - UNISON Branch Banners

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Nursing

Michael Walker UNISON Officer

Flying the Red Flag

"Insult" to Duke of York.

Red Flag on Asylum Building. 

January 1927 National Asylum Workers Union Journal

Gateshead Town Council on January 5th 1927 refused to allow the Communist Party to hold meetings in the Town Hall. During the proceedings there was a stormy scene arising out of an incident at the Corporation's mental asylum at Stannington, where, it was alleged, a "red flag" was flown while the Duke of York was at the neighbouring hostel of the Newcastle Poor Children's Holiday Association.

Councillor White said the statement was not true, and refused to sit down when ordered. After a good deal of uproar the Mayor explained that the red flag was exhibited from a window of a building on the asylum estate. When an employee was called before the committee he denied showing the flag and said it was flown by his daughter.

The Mayor said the committee did not believe the statement, and declared that the red flag was flown " to insult the Duke of York, the Lord Mayor of Newcastle, the Sheriff, and the Union Jack." He had never known such impudence.

It was agreed that the committee should further investigate the matter.

NOTE

Red Flags were regular flown by protesters from Workhouses in the 1930’s as part of the national unemployed Workers Movement campaign

Red Flags were flown over hospitals in Glasgow on July 5^th 1948 when the NHS came into being.

St Pancras Council Labour leader John Lawrence, fulfilled a Labour commitment to fly the red flag from the Town Hall on May Day, 1958. A policy attacked by the right wing national press. The St Pancras Chronicle commented, ’will long be remembered by the 140,000 residents of St Pancras as one of the most exciting days in the borough’s history. For the Leftists, the raising of the Red Flag over the Town Hall in Euston Road, NW1, was a proud achievement.

Many Labour Council's in the 1980s, such as Hammersmith, Islington, Manchester and Sheffield regularly flew the red flag

Red Flags flown over Monaghan and Letterkenny Hospital “Soviets” in Ireland

Famously the Red Army flew the Red Flag over the Richstag, when it was captured from the Nazi's at the end of WW2 in Europe.

Red Flag flies over Guilford for Charles and Diana Royal Wedding 1981

RED FLAG

The red flags of became a potent relic following the execution of early trade unionist British sailors mutinied near the mouth of the River Thames in 1797 and hoisted a red flag on several ships.

Two red flags flown by marchers during the Merthyr Dic Penderyn (Richard Lewis) in August 1831 despite a public campaign to pardon him.

Rising of 1831 in South Wales were soaked in calf's blood.

Morpeth COHSE 1972

Picture of Morpeth Branches of COHSE the health care union. Ancillary Demonstration 13 December 1972 against the imposed Wage Freeze. The march was covered by the local media  and BBC TV.

The branch stated that this was the first march held in Morpeth since National Strike in 1931 (Think they are referring to General strike of 1926 ?)

No 1 Region Northern COHSE Region
Andy Vanbeck - Regional secretary
J. Grey - Asst Regional Secretary
Townsville House
274 Heaton Road
Newcastle

Tom Walton
Tom Walton (Bishop Auckland)  National Executive Committee Member for Northern Region (March 1948-1968) died 13th December 1972 at the age of 63. Officer at the Department of Social security he retired in 1968 having started employment in 1926 as a junior clerk in the Education Department at Bishop Auckland. In 1930 transferred to Juvenile Employment Bureau and progressed through the ranks until he retired

National NHS Ancillary Workers Demonstrations 13th December 1972

 

National Demonstrations against the Tories Pay freeze were organised by COHSE & NUPE in all major cities on 13th December 1972 including London, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Brighton and many others


Click to enlarge photos

COHSE NEC Members - Region 6 North West Thames & Oxford

GEORGE NAZER

George Nazer was elected to COHSE's National Executive Committee for Region 6 (North West Thames & Oxford) in 1979, replacing Andy Dempsey (Leavesden). George a former Durham University geography student, joined the NHS in 1973 becoming the Vice Chairman of Shenley Hospital (Hertfordshire) branch in 1974 , Branch Chairman in 1975 and Branch secretary in 1977. Later moving to a mental health unit at St Mary's and later central Middlesex hospital.

George Nazer was  undoubtedly one of the most highly effective, progressive and intellectual member's of COHSE's NEC, traits only overshadowed by his commitment to ensuring professionalism in mental health nursing.


ROY OLIVER

Roy Oliver was a nurse and branch secretary at Hungerford Hospital (established 7th August 1968) and later Reading and District COHSE branch.

He led a successful campaign to save the 100 beded care of the elderly Hungerford Hospital in 1978/79

A key supporter of the Berkshire Joint Trade Union Committee which Roy chaired.

A Liberal Councillor in Hungerford (later he joined the Labour Party because of the failure of the Liberals to oppose the Tories in the 80's).

He was a National Executive Committee Member for Region 6 

Roy Oliver was openly "Gay"  speaking out for Gay rights at every opportunity , he wore his pink triangle "Gay Rights" badge with pride when it was not popular or safe to do so.
 

Roy was a popular NEC member and his popularity helped COHSE in securing an early trade union commitment to Lesbian and Gay rights. However he had earlier been slow hand clapped for supporting Gay rights at COHSE Conference.

COHSE's early commitment to Lesbian and gay rights culminated in the union refusing to hold its conference on the Isle of Man and its high profile opposition to Clause 28.

Roy was involved in the Battle Hospital Miners Support Group

Like so many of his friends he died young.

JENNY KOCH

Jenny Koch was elected in a shock victory over the popular Roy Oliver in 1985. Jenny was branch Secretary of COHSE Wycombe branch and a community Midwife.  She qualified as a nurses at Suffolk General hospital in 1968. In 1975 moving to Wycombe. Active in a successful campaign to save community midwives in Wycombe

Jenny Koch along with Christine Wilde were active COHSE midwives on the NEC, and reflected COHSE's base (continued in UNISON) amongst radical midwives.

Both COHSE's and Unison's had great success in secure COHSE/Unison midwives were elected midwifery positions on the old UKCC Nursing Boards, despite not being the dominate union in midwifery


DAN MORIARTY


Dan Moriarty was one of the most popular and respected members of the National Executive Committee until his retirement last year (1972). He had represented No. 6 Region
since 1968 and was also a member of the Legal and Parliamentary Committee and
the Staff Superannuation Committee.
 
Dan, accompanied by his wife, was the guest of honour at the Annual General
Meeting of his former region on 16 April and was presented with a cheque and
framed life-membership certificate.

  In making the presentation, Tom Hedditch.  Regional Chairman during Dan's
term of office, referred to his exceptional personal qualities saying: 'He was never
too busy to try to help not only his fellow trade unionists but his fellow men.' His
generosity  and  compassion  were  well known and demonstrated in his everyday
approach to life: although he had suffered the horrors of a Japanese prisoner of war
camp, he bore no resentment towards his former captors - his regard for his fellow
men was not limited by race or creed.

  St Bernard's Hospital Branch, where he was branch secretary, owes a great deal to
Dan's organising abilities; it is now one of the largest branches in the country, and
Charlie Wood, who spoke as a member of the National Executive Committee, said
that Dan's point of view had always been respected  and  he  paid  tribute  to  his
diligence and devotion to duty.

  Mrs Moriarty, who was presented with a bouquet of flowers, was described as
'The good woman behind the man'. There is no doubt that her support had contributed to her husband's success.

  In reply Dan, who now lives in South Wales, said it had always been a pleasure
to carry out the various duties required of him, and referred to No. 6 Region as the
most vigilant and enthusiastic in the Confederation. He sincerely hoped that the
standards he had set over the years were acceptable.

  As Regional Secretary, may I say that for No. 6 Region there is no doubt that
Dan Moriarty's standards were most acceptable - the point is whether we who
follow him can even attempt to follow in his footsteps. We wish him all the best for
a long and happy retirement.

COHSE Journal June 1973

New London GLC Ambulance Prototype Unvailed 1973

 1973

New Greater London Council Ambulance Service, Ambulance

designed by Anthony Smallhorn and manufactured by Reeve Coachbuilders Ltd

On 30 January 1973, Sir Desmond Plummer, Leader of the GLC, handed over a new prototype ambulance to the London Ambulance Service. 

 

The new ambulance, designed to meet the specifications of the Ministry of Health's Miller Report of 1967 and the Ogle Report, sponsored by the National Research Development Corporstion in 1969, will mean greater comfort for the patient (with its front wheel drive and independent suspension) and should be far more acceptable to the crew, in so far as there is full standing height inside and the step height into the vehicle is only 9 inches (as compared with an average of 23 inches in existing ambulances). 

 

Whilst the interior is scarcely bigger overall, the design of the new ambulance manages to provide much more room for and access to the two patients, with space for an attendant to sit at the head of the stretcher.

 

Under the Government's planned re-organisation of the Health Service, control over the London Ambulance Service will pass from the GLC to one of London's four Regional Hospital Authorities. Sir Desmond took the opportunity of expressing his concern over this proposal and hoped that the Government would have 'second thoughts about removing such a vital  service  from  the  control  of  the democratically elected representatives of
the people'.

Health Sevices (COHSE Union Journal) March 1973

Medical Aid to Spain

Lewisham Hospital Rally - Save Our A&E 24th November 2012

COHSE & The Miners

 

The recent revelation that Police colluded to ensure the prosecution and jailing of miners during the 1984-85 miners strike, comes as no surprise to those active at the time.

The only surprise is that it has been revealed in our lifetime, a fact only due to the tireless efforts of the Hillsborough campaign for justice, which highlighted the establishments successful attempts to hide the truth of what really happened to 96 innocent Liverpool supporters killed at Hillsborough on 15th April 1989

Not only were the 96 football fans who died, defamed but the Tories and their establishment friends attempted to vilify the whole City of Liverpool, that rallied to support the families. 

The Hillsborough Inquiry, highlighted establishment collusion and police collusion at the highest levels and it soon became evident that the same tactics used to marginalise the Hillsborough families, had also been used extensively during the miners strike.

During the Miners  strike 11,291 people were arrested, of whom 8,392 were charged, we now know many of those charged were totally innocent.

COHSE activists at the time feared that the sequestration and imprisoning of miners was simply an attempt by the establishment to smash a democratic and free trade union in Britain.

COHSE had always had a strong bond of friendship towards the miners and a "debt of gratitude" had grown over many years, not least because the miners had often taken action in support of nurses and NHS staffs pay and they campaigner alongside us to defend hospitals from closure.

So it was that a "middle of the road" union like COHSE would play a critical role in ensuring, that to the surprise of Neil Kinnock and Labour Party apparatchiks a resolution at the October 1985  Labour Party conference was carried calling for a future Labour Government to investigate the jailing of miners and a full scale amnesty. 

The Labour Party leadership were sure of victory so it was to their great shock to find that the decisive vote in favour was cast by COHSE. 

To COHSE's great pride and the Labour Party leadership's shock.

Of course the Blair government did nothing about the Amnesty or for that matter Hillsborough, but the truth has finally begun to appear and those of us who stated that the jailing were a simply political act have been vindicated. 

Unfortunately many convicted and framed miners lost their pensions and employment, many died not knowing that their innocence would one day be revealed.

We salute those brave striking miners once again for their courage and fortitude against overwhelming forces.