The NBS in England currently has 13 regional centres which process and test donated blood before redistribution to the hospitals. However this vital service is under threat with management wanting to condense these regional centres into just 3 to cover the whole of England.

Unlike many NHS trusts, the NBS is not in debt, and operates efficiently with committed workers, many of whom have worked there for decades learning their highly specialised skills on the job.

The National Blood Service performs a vital role in collecting blood from donations from 100's of sites daily, testing the blood for Hepatitis, HIV, Malaria and Syphilis and filtering the blood and separating into components. They must then distribute it promptly to hospitals. There are centres that perform these functions in Oxford, Bristol, Southampton, Tooting, Colindale, Brentwood, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Cambridge, Sheffield and Leeds.

Staff have been in industrial dispute with the NBS board of directors and management for about a year, over unworkable reconfiguration plans which will see local processing and testing sites condensed into just three 'supercentres', in Bristol, Manchester and Colindale.

Hi there.   My name is Sara Willig.  I am a member of the Boston GMB.  You might remember me if you followed the DARE job branch struggles of 2002-4.  The situation I’m writing you about tonight is  related to that fight, when my coworkers voted to decertify the union about 18 months ago after a campaign of union busting and manipulation by management.

If you didn’t follow the DARE job branch situation, or if you’ve joined more recently, I’m a health care worker.  I do a social work job, but without a degree in social work or the higher wages that go along with that degree.  Keeps the price down for you, the taxpayer, never mind the State.  But mostly it keeps the costs down for the boss.  The agency I work for contracts with Massachusetts’ Dept, of Mental Retardation (DMR) and I’m paid to be the case manager for two disabled people.  Sometimes I’ve had a caseload of three people. Currently my clients are borderline MR and moderately MR.

Reposted from www.counterpunch.com/demoro07212005.html

As Union Chiefs Head Towards a Showdown Next Week in Chicago, the Leader of One of the Country's Most Vital and Combative Unions Identifies....

The Top 10 Problems with the Current "Crisis" in the Labor Movement

By ROSE ANN DeMOROCalifornia Nurses Association

1. There are no real ideological disputes, in part because the current AFL-CIO leadership and programs were, mostly, put in place by those now challenging them. It appears to be more about egos and an effort by specific unions to anoint themselves as the group who should control the AFL-CIO.

2. No workers or rank and file union members are involved, and it is their labor movement. Much of the discussion is based on recommendations of consultants and Madison Avenue approaches such as branding, polling and focus groups, and controlled blogs, rather than engaging the membership and the public on helping shape the future of the labor movement.

3. No issues affecting the majority of working Americans are being debated declining real wages, the health care crisis, the continued erosion of democracy in the workplace, outsourcing of jobs across the skill and pay spectrum, a deteriorating social safety net, declining support for public education, environmental degradation, social justice and ongoing racial and gender inequality, alienation and disaffection from the political process.