Solidarity from health unions around the world

Solidarity messages for the Save Our NHS - 7 March Rally from health sector unions in Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, South Africa and Spain.

Australian Services Union

The UK NHS is a beacon to many, and no doubt some do not share our beliefs across the world would like to see it pulled down, .. the UK NHS is a beacon to many a standard of aspiration , your cause is just for workers in other counties and those in the UK, I and the ASU wish UNISON Members the very best in their campaign - your work is important to UK citizens and many, many others.

Canada: National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE)

I am writing on behalf of the members of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) to express our solidarity with the March 7th rally to Save Our NHS protesting the Cameron-Clegg government’s proposed Health and Social Care Bill.

Canadians are no strangers to threats to our Medicare program. Like you, we are confronted with a federal government that seems intent on fragmenting and then turning over the delivery of health care in this country to for-profit companies. Our governments are pursuing this agenda despite overwhelming support in both of our countries for our public health care systems.

This is why your struggle is so important not only for the citizens of the UK but for all of us who value a publicly-funded and delivered health care system. If your government is successful in so dramatically rewriting the principles of your health care system, our federal government will undoubtedly pursue similar measures.

We applaud your members for taking a stand. We offer our solidarity and admiration for your actions! I also promise you that the members of NUPGE will similarly take a stand against efforts to undermine and dismantle our health care system.

National Organization of Government Employees India

The National Organization of Government Employees India and the National Coordinating Committee of PSIO Indian Affiliates are with you in opposing the Government’s decision to Privatize the Health Services in UK. We all the affiliates of PSI are strongly support you action in solidarity.

IMPACT (Ireland)

As Ireland’s largest public sector trade union, representing 30,000 workers in the Irish health system, IMPACT is proud to support your call to save the NHS.

Since its foundation was completed in 1948, the National Health Service has been a leading light in the delivery of public health. A universal system, free at the point of access, remains the envy of the world, and with very good reason.

In Ireland, recent years have seen concerted attempts to encourage the privatisation of healthcare, a process that has faltered somewhat in the face of an economic crisis. However, a two tier system has developed as a result of attempts to grow private health delivery, which has threatened to erode our public health system. Don’t let your Government make the same mistake.

International experience tells us that a ‘for-profit’ healthcare system does not work. It cannot wholly serve the needs of a diverse society. It restricts itself to treating only those people who can afford it. Similarly, the generation of profit from healthcare risks diverting attention and resources from the primary aim of treating illness and maintaining health.

The NHS has always stood for the best possible model of public delivery. It has played a significant role in improving health outcomes for every generation born in the UK since the post-war years that marked its foundation. The NHS has travelled too far and served its public too well to be broken up, diluted and parcelled into pieces for consumption by a predatory private system.

Our members stand in solidarity with health workers in the NHS to defend a treasured national resource. Don’t let this government unravel all that has been achieved.

South Africa: SAMWU

It is with great pleasure that we send our sister union UNISON, and all those participating in the Save Our NHS activities our sincere greetings and solidarity for your timely and essential rally against the UK Governments Health and Social Care Bill. It is abundantly clear that the intention of the Government is to destroy one of the UK’s landmark social developments, namely the National Health Service.

In addition to providing free and accessible healthcare for generations of people, the NHS has also been an important global model. Currently in South Africa, plans are being implemented to put in place a free and comprehensive national health service that in part has been inspired by the NHS.  The trade union movement here has been demanding such a health service not only to redress the imbalances of the apartheid era, but to also establish social provision that deepens democracy and social cohesion. Democratic Government must strive to serve the needs of all of our people, and not just a wealthy elite. It is indicative of the mean-spirited neo-liberal approach of the current UK Government that is seeking to impoverish working class communities in order to pay for an economic crisis that the Government itself helped to create, and for which it is prepared to sacrifice invaluable social assets like the NHS and many other vital services.

We are particularly heartened to learn that the Save Our NHS campaign is not simply based on the actions of public sector unions but that all unions, community and civil society groups are prepared to mobilise and defend their NHS
We hope that the Rally marks another step forward in mobilising mass action against any further undermining of the NHS or the public sector as a whole, and that the Government is forced to reconsider its actions, and stop dismantling services that should be treasured and nurtured, not destroyed in a feckless attempt to satisfy the needs of the wealthy.

Spain FSC-CCOO

On behalf of Federation of Services to the Citizen of CCOO we would like to send a message of solidarity to UNISON, the workers of the National Health Service and all the British people in your fight to save the NHS and against the plans of Cameron government to fragment and privatise it. We wish you success for your actions on 7 March.