GLASGOW Three-hundred ancillary workers at Glasgow's biggest hospital, the Royal Infirmary, on August 16 celebrated a sweeping victory over Sodexho, one of the most powerful multinational corporations in Europe. The company has been contracted to run the government-operated hospital's support services.
Before the strike, porters, domestics and catering staff were paid £4.20 to £4.67 an hour. They had just three to six weeks' paid sick leave, depending on length of service. The workers recieved no shift allowances and were paid just time-and-a-quarter overtime.
But after a campaign of 24-hour strikes, which culminated in a bitter two-day stoppage, the company caved in and agreed to:
- a £5 an hour minimum wage backdated to April;
- three months' sick leave on full pay, with a further three months on half pay; and
- a 20% shift allowance and overtime payments increased to time-and-a-half.
During the strike the company bussed in scabs from all over Britain. In retaliation, workers stepped up their picketing of the hospital and organised a boycott of Sodexho facilities across Scotland and internationally.
The strike was led by Scottish Socialist Party co-chair Carolyn Leckie, who is the Glasgow North UNISON hospitals branch secretary. Leckie thanked all who supported the strike and praised the determination of the workers.
Three hundred low paid workers in Glasgow have taken on and defeated a giant multinational. This is a landmark victory which could open up the floodgates of opposition to low pay and exploitation in the National Health Service, Leckie told the Scottish Socialist Voice.
Sodexho has been integral to the privatisation agenda of successive British governments Labour and Conservative. The company has contracts to run support services in hospitals, schools and refugee detention centres across Britain. The French corporation bids for contracts throughout the world, running outsourced services from Australia to Venezuela.
[Abridged from the Scottish Socialist Voice, newsapaper of the Scottish Socialist Party. Visit <http://www.scottishsocialistvoice.net>.]
From Green Left Weekly, August 28, 2002.
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