Running time: 6 mins 35 secs
The Rapid Response team at Guy’s and St Thomas’s hospitals do the very dangerous and skilled job of disinfecting the hospitals after outbreaks of viruses like COVID, monkeypox, ebola and noroviruses.
Without them, the hospitals cannot function – yet they are paid just £12 an hour – the lowest paid workers in the whole trust – they have no rest room to sit down or even clean themselves possibly, so are constantly at risk of taking the viruses home to their families – and have had no risk assessments on the jobs they do for ten years.
The team are predominately black, which appallingly is why management don’t even both listening to their concerns. So now the workers have taken strike action for two weeks to show them what happens when they are not there to protect everyone.
These workers put their lives at risk every day for the trust. If management don’t agree to treat them with the respect they deserve, they will be going on all-out indefinite strike – and that’s when they’ll need your support and solidarity.
They are now one of a number of groups of workers at the hospitals who are taking action over worsening conditions; so if you value your NHS, come down to the picket lines and support them and make sure the trust – and this rotten government – don’t get away with ruining our healthcare.
