Health and safety reps beat bosses' no chairs rule

The unpopular OTP ('Operational Transformation Project') working pattern imposed clunkily by NHSBT management on blood collection teams a few years ago has many flaws according to donor carer staff. One which caused great health concern, with a increasing rise in occupational health referrals, was the attempted removal of chairs for staff from donor sessions.





Union health and safety reps from across the staffside worked together and fought hard against this ruling, using the law as a weapon. A great coup was achieved by getting in the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to carry out an inspection. The HSE is an under-funded body that rarely visits workplaces.

The HSE report released in March this year fully backed up what health and safety reps had been arguing. Following this blow to their authority management had no choice, in the light of hard evidence, but to accept the findings of the HSE's report and replace chairs. This is a fantastic victory achieved by union reps that will benefit collection teams everywhere.

Health and safety law can be a valuable tool for workers. Over the years union activists have pushed to make it rule in our favour. The fight to improve working conditions goes on constantly. At the extreme end unsafe working can kill and make people seriously ill. Each year more people die through their work than from war.

The ILO (UN International Labour Organisation) estimates that 337 million accidents occur on the job annually, while the number of people suffering from work-related diseases is close to 2 million. These mistakes amount to approximately 2.3 million deaths each year, with 650,000 of them due to hazardous substances – double the number of a few years ago.

Don't forget Workers Memorial Day, 28th April every year across the world. It is a day to remember those who have been killed by work, but also to fight for better health and safety in the present, as reps in NHSBT have been doing.

Union official's last minute hot air

Last week (26/03/09) the Evening Mail ran this story covering the closure of Birmingham's blood processing, quality monitoring and NAT labs. Tomorrow will be their final day.

Please click for a larger readable version.



Read the story online here.

It is based on a press release from full time Unite officials. This blog has objections from the very first sentence which says: 'Union leaders are trying to halt controversial plans...'.

There can be no doubt that throughout this entire campaign 100% of the energy, sweat, tears and sleepless nights have been spent by unpaid union stewards, active members and their workmates. In fact there are quite a few well-remembered instances of union leaders and officials discouraging and obstructing NBS workers' campaigning efforts.

That is not to say that these officials have not been part of active struggles earlier in their lives, but in the case of the fight against NBS restructuring it is not true to say that they were part of it other than to make vague grand rhetorical statements for press releases.

Now this blog steps down from its soapbox to accept that the choice of wording in the first sentence was made by the journo. The real issue is - what good are statements like these after it is too late to save the Brum blood centre? More of a fight was needed a long time ago. As mentioned above, this was not made easy for us.

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.

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 @)

Furious letter from Canadian blood service workers union

Last month the Nova Scotia Union of Public & Private Employees (NSUPE) sent a storming letter to the Canadian Blood Service CEO on behalf of their very frustrated members working in blood collection. Their experiences of the high pressure piled onto them as a result of poor management decisions are shared by donor carers this side of the pond.

Click here to read the letter in full and the response from CBS bosses.

Minutes from Leeds Scrutiny Committee regarding NBS strategy

Leeds Scrutiny Committee, which examines proposals for changes in public services and resources, recently held a meeting which was attended by union stewards representing the NBS staff, and management and HR representing the directors and their strategy of proposed lab closures.

The Committee was extremely angry at the way that they felt that they had been left out of the consultation process until all the decisions on the future of Leeds blood centre had been made.



You can read the minutes HERE.

'No-show Gisela Stuart urged to quit hospital committee'

A recent Birmingham Mail story revealed that Gisela Stuart, Labour MP for Edgbaston (location of Birmingham's blood centre), and also stakeholder governor of Birmingham University Hospital Trust, failed to turn up to any of the Trust governor meetings that were held in the last 12 months.



NBS workers at the Birmingham centre were extremely unsurprised to hear about this. Some members of staff contacted her immediately when the job losses in her constituency were announced in late 2006. Yet rather than properly interrogating the NBS reconfiguration plans as other, more responsible, MPs and councillors chose to do, she was heard on live local radio saying that in an emergency blood would 'just be rushed up in a helicopter'. Staff were amused and intrigued at this mention of the mystery helicopter which hadn't appeared in any strategy budgets, or in fact anywhere outside of Gisela Stuart's head...

So from the outset Gisela Stuart MP seemed to have aligned herself in favour of the closure of a major health facility and workplace in her constituency.

Later, after the reprieve of Birmingham's red cell crossmatching lab was announced, a story appeared in the local paper unhelpfully trumpeting that Gisela Stuart had been heavily involved in securing this victory. This was false on two counts - not only had she played next to no role whatsoever in events, but the 'victory' was a small one and the area was still set to suffer greatly from the proposed closure of the blood processing department.

Many letters have turned up in the local press expressing worry about the Birmingham blood centre being decimated, at the same time as a gigantic new multimillion-pound superhospital is being build right next door, looming over it in fact. Surely a hospital this massive and shiny (set to replace the current University Hospital) needs to have a fully functioning, top class, blood centre on its doorstep - not just a big chiller?

Well, now we know the reason that Gisela Stuart doesn't seem to be concerned about this situation. Because she is not concerned with Birmingham University Hospital at all. Here we see yet another case of an MP pointlessly holding a seat, like some kind of badge of honour, on a decision-making body that they don't care anough about to take part in. That place would be better off given to a long term patient or service user who depends on the hospital for their wellbeing.

Yorkshire Evening Post - 'Fears over plans to move Leeds blood centre'

Published: 25th July 2008
By Katie Baldwin
Health Reporter

Councillors have raised concerns about plans to move services from a blood processing centre in Leeds. The NHS Blood and Transplant Service (NHSBT) wants to scale down the Seacroft centre in Leeds, a move which would affect up to 70 staff.

That could mean blood processing and testing no longer took place in the city.

Leeds City Council's Health Scrutiny Board has now heard evidence from staff at the centre, NHSBT representatives and Leeds Primary Care Trust (PCT).

Board members were annoyed that councillors and Leeds PCT had not been consulted sooner and raised concerns about the impact on Leeds patients.

Scrutiny board chairman Coun Pauleen Grahame (Lab, Cross Gates and Whinmoor) said: "It is vitally important that any changes are properly thought through – after all, lives could be at stake.

"Not only that, but I am very worried about the implications of this closure for the Leeds economy and for the future of Seacroft Hospital.

"The blood treatment centre is a major employer of skilled staff, and it would be a great shame for the city if they were forced to move elsewhere to find work."

You can read the full story and add your comments (please do!) HERE.

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!