The majority of outsourced workers working for private contractor Carillion at Swindon Hospital (part of Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) have voted for strike action in a move to signal their frustration at managment's intransigence on complaints of bullying.
Full news of the campaign, with links to earlier stories, can be seen at: http://union-news.co.uk/2012/01/goan-somewhere-swindon-indians-ballot-for-strike-action-over-bullying/
What makes this strike of note for the Race Matters blog is that the majority of workers are first-generation migrants from Goa.
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| GMB members and Carillion employees vote for strike action |
Interestingly, it doesn't take long for the long-standing grievances of workers to be based on discriminatory grounds around, for example, annual leave. Lifting a quote from the Union News stroy:
One GMB member, who did not want to be named for fear of recrimination, told UnionNews: “This is terrible because two weeks to go to India is not enough. It takes us two days to get there and two days to get back, so we don’t have much time with our families. Also, many of us are Christians and we want to go home during the Christmas period but we are told this is not allowed. This is not fair. This is discrimination.”
This campaign is well worth following.
In Solidarity
Ian
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