health and social care

Care workers employed by care provider Alternative Futures Group (AFG) have recently voted on industrial action in a Unison organised ballot over the long-running, sleep-in dispute. Ballots have now been counted, and 87.4% voted to strike on a 51.5% turnout.

Unison has also recently sent out consultative ballots to members of another large care provider, Lifeways Group. The long running exploitation and financial abuse of workers in the care sector by their employers is finally starting to get attention, and care workers are saying “enough is enough”.

The sleep-in dispute has been going on for some years and revolves around sleep-in shifts, where a care worker will stay overnight at work in a person’s home or in a care home, in case they are needed in the night. Typically, they will sleep in an office or spare room, and be available to work whenever called on.

The  Bristol Care Workers Network will be organising a protest against Mencap in Bristol at 12:00 on October 27th. Manchester SolFed will be organising a picket in support.

Mencap have gone to court to demand that the government overturns it’s recent ruling on pay for sleeping shifts. Because of Mencap, millions of low-paid workers will now be denied the minimum wage for their sleep shifts.

This has come at a time when non-payment of the minimum wage is at it’s worst ever level. The care sector is already one of the worst affected. Even for workers who are paid legally, studies have shown that it is almost impossible to make a living on the minimum wage. And now, Mencap want to make it even harder for workers to get the minimum wage.

Our NHS is in crisis: doctors' surgeries in Brighton are closing down, A&E waiting times are getting longer, hospitals are shutting up shop - and the sick and old are being left to die on hospital trollies.

The care system is in an even worse state: poor wages and criminal working condition mean there just aren't enough carers.

Here in Brighton most council contracts are privatised, and carers are often employed illegally: paid below the minimum wage, denied paid holidays, being forced to work long and unpredictable hours on zero-hours contracts and left to work without adequate training or supervision.

Of course the price of this isn't just being paid by the health and social care workers at the sharp end, it means health and care services are getting worse for all of us.

Last Monday we reached an agreement with Alpha Care which satisfies the economic demands made by a former worker.

The media has recently been escalating the migrant bashing with the claims that health tourists are plunging the NHS into crisis by not paying their bills.

This distracting technique pulls our gaze away from the more obvious strains the NHS is facing. With flat lining NHS funding (although the government are putting “more” money in this is not inline with increasing inflation and demand), cuts in social care, along with crippling Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) with extortionate interest rates and massive management consultancy fees, there is no wonder health services are finding that there is not enough money.

The following is a personal account of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity by a member of South London Solidarity Federation. The author has made some additional points in response to comments which are included in the addendum below.

MCS is an adverse reaction to airborne chemicals, such as air fresheners, solvents, and scented cleaning products. Symptoms vary from nose and throat irritation, fatigue and headaches to full-blown immune system overload. It can be triggered by a one off or severe exposure to chemicals, pesticides or other toxins and become a long-term susceptibility to the low levels of exposure now common in many public spaces.

CNT-E has achieved recognition of the discrimination that Doctors Without Borders has committed since 2014 in their recruitment procedure. In that year, workers at the NGO managed to get their temporary contracts -whose use in this case was illegal- changed to permanent contracts. However, MSF did not change the contracts of two migrant workers.

The CNT (an anarcho-syndicalist union in Spain) workplace branch in Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Spain is fighting against the precariousness of the fund-raising staff. MSF has been including abusive clauses in their contracts and also has been discriminating against migrant workers.

This year's Bristol Anarchist Bookfair is looking at "Building an anarchist future". As part of this dialogue Bristol SF will be hosting a workshop on:

Healthcare Beyond the State. For a people's NHS

What can we learn from recent NHS struggles that could help shape a health service based not on some golden age that never was but instead on the principles of direct democracy and mutual aid? How can we provide progressive healthcare without the bureaucrats and the bosses?

Here is how Bookfair Collective hope that the workshops and meetings with develop the theme of "Building an anarchist future".