OVER A HUNDRED striking porters, cleaners and catering staff at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust marched from St Thomas’ Hospital to Downing Street yesterday, on the third day of a three-day strike to lift their pay from Band 2 to Band 3.
It is the second strike by nearly 300 Band 2 workers at the trust, after a walkout from 9 to 11 September. Unite says further dates are planned through the autumn and could run into 2027.
Its general secretary, Sharon Graham, said the trust ‘is treating its staff with utter disdain’ and that members ‘cannot survive living in London on poverty-level wages’.
Unite’s London lead health officer, Tabusam Ahmed, said: ‘The trust has the power to resolve our pay dispute and work with Unite to build a culture of dignity and respect.’
The strikers, who also include domestics, food service workers and rapid response cleaners, are fighting low pay and the bullying and discrimination they say staff face from management. Band 2 is barely above the minimum wage.
A strong and lively picket braved heavy rain outside the hospital on Westminster Bridge from 7am. The strikers then marched to Downing Street chanting ‘Band 2 won’t do’, ‘Enough is enough’ and ‘What do we want? Fair pay! When do we want it? Now!’
Esther Ampadu, a domestic with 14 years’ service, told News Line: ‘We want an increase in our pay, but they don’t want to do it. That’s why we are on strike.
‘Our supervisors are on Band 4, but we are the ones doing the work. Once you pay for your bus pass and bills it’s gone.
‘I come from Ghana, and it’s very hard to find money to send home.
‘We will fight, fight, fight to get what we should. We want everybody to join our strikes.
‘They will happily take the pay rise that we win, so they should be here with us.’
Esther Ogunnekan said: ‘Everybody should join the strike. It’s very expensive, especially for people who live in the local area, central London.
‘You just can’t live the way you want to live. We need Band 3 to be able to do that.’
A Unite member on the picket said: ‘I like working at St Thomas’ apart from the pay, that is the concern for me.
‘I have huge responsibilities. Three children to look after and all the costs of transport and food.
‘Everything is going high, but the pay is not increasing, so how can I manage with that?
‘I think we should have a national strike. It is worth doing because we are all living in the same country but some people are getting way more than we workers.
‘We are the ones working hard, whereas the rich people are getting all the benefits. We are not getting any respect for what we do, especially in terms of the money we get.’
Another Unite member said: ‘We are on Band 2 which is too low for the work that we do. We have hard jobs, but our pay is too low. We have families and we can’t pay our bills.
‘Band 2 is only £24,000, and Band 3 is £26,000 or £27,000 which is also barely enough when the prices have gone up so high.
‘We have to keep on striking and we are going to fight, fight, fight until we get what we need! I think if we had a national strike of all the hospitals it would help a lot.
‘It is true if we had a workers’ government it would help us a lot, and the unions have to help in that. The employers don’t care about us.’ At Downing Street the strikers were addressed by the Unite branch secretary Mark Boothroyd.
