five-hundred clerical and administration workers at three hospitals in West Yorkshire came out on strike on Sunday.
They are striking for five-days against threats of pay cuts and the sack.
The Unison members at Dewsbury Hospital, Pinderfields and Pontefract General Infirmary are fighting a management plan to sack 70 workers and impose £2,800-a-year pay cuts on those who remain.
The strike began at midnight on Sunday and will continue until midnight on Friday.
It follows a meeting where the workers voted unanimously to continue with and escalate their action.
On the picket line at Dewsbury District Hospital yesterday, Unison rep Dave Byrom told News Line: ‘Clerical staff are being asked to take pay cuts and downgrading en masse.
‘They’re launching a consultation at the end of March, proposing the downgrading of Dewsbury A&E and centralisation of emergency care at Pinderfields in Wakefield.
‘They’re also proposing a nurse-led rather than a consultant-led maternity unit.
‘The Children’s Ward and Critical Care would also go.
‘We all know it’s a result of the Health and Social Care Act and trying to make hospitals attractive to private companies.’
He added: ‘At the last consultation we managed to avoid compulsory redundancies, though roughly 70 took voluntary redundancy.
‘Now they’ve resorted to issuing dismissal and re-engagement letters last Saturday.
‘They’re using bullying tactics to try to get staff to accept downgrading.’
Unison regional organiser Jim Bell said: ‘The members remain resolute. They’re determined to do what’s necessary.’
Dewsbury, Pontefract and Wakefield hospitals will be picketed every day and a rally will take place at Wakefield town hall on Friday at 12.30pm.
Unison said 74 clerical staff have received redundancy notices from Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which claims it needs to make savings of £24m by April.
In November, Unison members at the three hospitals held four days of strike action against the plans.
Ahead of this week’s strike, Bell said: ‘This is a significant escalation of the action from our perspective.
‘We expect around 500 people to be on strike during the week.’
He said Mid Yorkshire had already cut pay protection from three years to a year before proposing the current downbanding of salaries.
Scorning a proposal by trust bosses to increase the period staff would be protected from the pay cuts from one year to 18 months and to provide six months ‘pay protection’ in a lump sum, Bell said contemptuously: ‘It’s a cynical move by them’.