UNISON Fights Back Against Cuts Consultation

On Thursday, UNISON sprung into action to respond to the consultation on proposed cuts in five of the health trusts. UNISON regionally submitted a response to each Trust raising concerns and highlighting various impacts the cuts would make on staff, service users and members of the public. At local level, branches lobbied their own Trust areas by submitting responses, petition signatures, speaking at public meetings and protesting against the cuts. 

In the Belfast Trust 781 individual responses were collected and submitted by UNISON health branches in the Royal, City and Mater hospitals, and South & East Belfast branches. In the Northern Trust, over 22,000 petition signatures were handed over after a  trust meeting at Antrim hospital (See article from The Antrim Guardian newspaper below).  The branch spent three weeks collecting the 22,261 signatures to allow members and the general public to express their concern at the cuts in their ares. At the Western Trust meeting UNISON activists from the Omagh/Fermanagh branch urged people to stand behind the Trust board and instead call on permanent secretary of the Department of Health, to halt the cuts entirely.

In other UNISON branches, activists held protests against the cuts with a message #TrustSayNo calling on each Trust board to stand up against the consultation and refuse to implement any cuts.

The Antrim Guardian news article