On Sunday, 21 January, shop stewards and health service militants met for the second conference of the National Alliance of Stewards for Health Workers (NASH). There was a comparatively low attendance, reflecting the difficulties in organising this traditionally passive and unorganised sector, and also the success of the manoeuvres of the Union bureaucracies both nationally and locally.
However, the result of the ballot held by the National Union of Public Employees showed that a militant feeling still exists among health workers — a majority voted for what would be the first all-out strike in the history of the N.H.S. The problem is that for the most part the actions of these workers still depend on the Union bureaucracies.
The Conference reaffirmed the previous decision to press for an £8 claim. Such a claim becomes ever more necessary as health wor kers see their standard of living further reduced by the effects of the freeze. The Conference recognised that no demands would be successful until the freeze is smashed, and its most important decision was to call on its supporters to work towards the setting up of rank and file alliances of all public sector workers (teachers, gas workers, civil service workers etc.) caught in the freeze. Such a move becomes all the more important when we note the reaction of the NUPE leadership to the results of the ballot. On the very day that the majority decision for all-out strike action was announced, the Union negotiators while refusing the miserable offer of £1.84 were arranging yet another meeting with management on 16 February. It is clear that they prefer the cosy farce of 'negotiations' to any attempt to organise along with other sections of the labour movement to smash the freeze. With typical contempt for the decisions of their membership they intend at most to indulge in what NUPE leader Alan Fisher referred to as "something more than token action". Such a policy can only isolate the ancillary workers and given their weakness is the best way to ensure their defeat.
This attitude is a clear indication that only the building of a strong rank-and-file organisation across all the health service unions will enable ancillary workers to win even their most immediate demands. Particularly important in this respect will be the launching of the national rank-and-file paper projected by the NASH Conference.