World Blood Donor Day - June 14th 2009

It's World Blood Donor Day, an annual day around the globe to celebrate the amazing gift of life that blood donation and transfusion gives to thousands of people every day, and especially to promote volunteer blood donation (as opposed to paid donors), as this ensures the safest supply of blood.

'If you call them, they will come...'

Spain


Italy


Canada


Testing a donor's blood pre-donation for haemoglobin levels in the olden days



'That wasn't so bad...'









This is what happens to your blood



In the past it used to be stored in glass jars, as these old Red Cross pictures show





The finished product



Pure human solidarity



Today and every day 1,700 people in the UK will receive a blood transfusion

Want to learn more? Click these links:

Birmingham Processing closure solidarity protest

These pictures are of the staff of Birmingham Blood Centre, from the labs and from transport, protesting to show solidarity and anger on the day that Processing was transferred down to Filton, Bristol. 3rd April 2009.

Click on photos for large version

IWW Blood Service Valentine's Day of Action

On Saturday 14th February 2009 West Midlands IWW held a cavalcade to raise awareness of cuts taking place at the Birmingham blood centre this March.

The IWW is a union with members working in the National Blood Service. They will be affected when the local blood processing lab shuts and transfers its work to a new centralised ‘super-centre’ in Bristol. Staff believe this is a risky plan which could delay urgent specialist blood products from reaching patients in West Midlands hospitals. Around 70 jobs will go with the closure.

The mobile demonstration, including a van with banners, cyclists and cars, set off from close by the soon-to-be-slashed blood centre and passed the Queen Elizabeth hospital and medical school, before making stops at Selly Oak, City and the Children’s hospitals. Road users were made aware of the cuts as the cavalcade travelled around Birmingham’s main arteries. Around 30 protestors wound up the day leafleting the public in New Street outside the donor centre. The blood service depends on the generous donations of the public - many more will need to receive a blood transfusion at some point in their life.

Click on pictures to see bigger version













The campaign has not managed to save Birmingham’s blood processing lab, but on the positive side, opposition to the plans from workers and their supporters has meant that Birmingham will keep its vital red cell crossmatching lab, and in the North and South-East, blood processing centralisation plans were halted completely.

Greetings on International Women's Day

To celebrate International Women's Day today this blog is posting a story that began in September 2006. 84 workers, 82 of them women, making medical equipment in Turkey went on strike for over a year, fighting against gross abuses by their employer Novamed.

Following is a list of some of the abuses as alleged by the woman workers of the union:

* Married woman workers are not allowed to become pregnant without FMC Novamed's approval. Each worker is given a schedule, which specifies during which months they are allowed to become pregnant. If a woman worker becomes pregnant in "breach" of this given schedule, she is terminated without compensation.
* Woman workers are required to get permission from the employer before getting married.
* To "save energy" for their work at the factory, workers are being advised:
- not to accept guests in their own homes when they are off the clock,
- not to communicate or even have sex with their spouses when they are off the clock,
- not to see each other when they are off the clock,
- only to eat and sleep when they are off the clock.
* Workers are treated inhumanely, and continuously humiliated regardless of whether they make a mistake or not.
* Managers and supervisors call their workers to their office and accuse and humiliate them in such a way that there are few workers who come out of these accusation-performances without crying.
* Workers are not allowed to talk to each other during work hours, as well as in the shuttle during their trips from and to work.
* Workers are allowed inside the factory premises after being "sniffed" by their supervisors, because smoking during work hours is forbidden.
* During work hours, there is only a 15-minute break and a 25-minute lunch break. During lunch, instead of food, the factory is serving tea and cookies.
* An average shuttle trip from home to work may take as long as 2 hours because there are not enough shuttles allocated by the factory for the workers.

Read more here.


Picket sign states: "We decide when we give birth"


Novamed women's union poster

At the outset of the battle there was no union at their factory but they got organised with the help of the union Petrol-Is. After 447 hard days striking, up against anti-union tactics by management, but with wide international solidarity, the workers won.

From December 18th 2007:
A three-year initial labour agreement was signed today in Istanbul between Petrol-Is and Novamed that ends a historic strike by 84 of the workers in Mersin, Antalya. The strike, which will stand as a test of courage for fairness and dignity on the job, began on 26 September 2006.

The settlement will bring the 84 strikers, 82 of whom are women, back to the job, and will grant all workers a wage increase of 5% for the first year, and of 4% for the second and third year of the agreement. It also brings a social package that includes a payment for each of two religious holidays in Turkey, as well as productivity and attendance bonuses for workers. All the striking workers will return to work on the 2nd of January 2008.



The agreement was historic as it marked the first trade union inside Antalya, Turkey's 'Free Trade Zone' (an area where sweatshops can operate).

Read about their victory in full.

Novamed is owned by Fresenius Medical Care of Germany. This firm manufactures one of the types of blood bags used by the National Blood Service in this country. Workers in the NBS have a direct connection to these brave and inspiring people.

Fresenius has also been investigated over bribery allegations.
"According to a 2005 UN report, Fresenius Medical Care was one of more than 2,000 firms around the world alleged to have made illicit payments to Saddam Hussein's government to profit from the aid programme."

Read more here.

IWW Valentine's Day Blood Service protest - 14th Feb 2009

On Saturday 14th February the IWW is taking a mobile protest to hospitals around the city, to inform the public and healthworkers about the looming closure of the Birmingham blood processing lab in March. This vital link in the blood supply chain is to be transferred down to Bristol under a centralisation regime, with the loss of around 70 jobs, leaving local hospitals’ blood supply at the mercy of the clogged motorways of the South-West of England.

The IWW, along with other unions and organisations, has campaigned against this dangerous move during the last few years. Unsurprisingly when management proposed these cuts there was the bare minimum of consultation with hospitals and none with the public. Now that the cuts are happening, the least we can do is take the message to the streets and make sure that Birmingham is well informed of exactly what is happening to our public services.

Show some love for the blood service on Valentine’s Day!

• We need cyclists! Lots and lots of cyclists! - To form the body of the convoy behind a large van with banners.
• We also need car drivers who can carry extra protestors. As many as possible.
The protest will meet at Birmingham Uni North gate turning circle, pass the Blood Centre and the QEH/Women’s hospital in Edgbaston, then call at Selly Oak, City, and end up at the Children’s hospital in the city centre.

Meeting points
@ B’ham Uni North Gate (Prichatts Rd) assemble from 11am
@ Selly Oak Hospital (Oak Tree Lane) approx 12 noon – 12.30pm
@ City Hospital (Dudley Road) approx 1.30 pm – 2pm
@ Children’s Hospital (Steelhouse Lane) approx 2.45pm
Finishing in the city centre on foot at 4.30pm

Please put this date into your diaries, and help us build numbers by letting your friends and family, workmates, neighbours and union contacts know about the event. Leaflets and posters are available now. For more info, to confirm attendance, to book a seat as a car passenger, or to get copies of the pre-event leaflet please contact iww.nbs[AT]gmail.com (replace [AT] with @)

NBS SOS benefit party - July 19th

The IWW, a union with members at the National Blood Service, is hosting a fundraising night on 19th July in London, to raise money for the campaign against service cuts.

There will be a fundraising club night organised by JustDefy! for the NBS campaign in Camberwell, south london, on saturday the 19th of July from 11pm. There is a free festival on camberwell green that day too, and we are the afterparty.

Venue is The Redstar, 319 Camberwell Road, Camberwell SE5 0HQ

Price: £5 all night all cash to the campaign

Buses: 36, 436, 171, 185, 12, 35, 45, 40, 42, 68, 468, 148, 176





The night is headlined by legendary underground party DJ Jerome Hill, a techno DJ with the flawless skills of a hip hop spinner, he's played verywhere from Glade to Sao Paulo to Hackney Wick:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=65313308
and his label: http://www.dont-recordings.com/

Dubstep from Louise+1: http://www.myspace.com/louiseplus1

Drum n bass from JNK: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=153482494

Acid techno from Gergl (http://www.serious-business.org.uk/)
and old school hardcore from Metra, who wasn't alive then obviously, but knows what he's doing.

Please come down to support this night if you can, and you can also help by publicising it on your myspace / facebook profile, or your own blog or website, if you have one. Thanks!

Birmingham keeps the pressure on

Photos sent in of an awareness-raising street stall held last weekend in Birmingham by staff and their friends and supporters (click for large version).











Keep up the good work out there - many people, including donors and recipients of blood transfusions, are still unaware of the proposed restructuring of our service. If you have any photos like this of street stalls or protests from your area then send them into the campaign email address:

nbs.sos[AT]gmail.com
(replace [AT] with @)

Birmingham solidarity demo - 31st January

Here are some pictures (click for larger version) sent in of the solidarity demonstration held in support of the long-serving lifesavers of the Birmingham donor testing lab who were made 'redundant' on 31st January, as their work was shipped off to the overloaded Bristol centre.

Birmingham NBS staff are proud to call you colleagues and friends.













See more here

Info coming very soon on the outcome of the strategic review!