Unison's Helga Pile joins Colchester picket line

Hundreds of cleaners, porters, caterers and other soft facilities management staff are taking industrial action after East Suffolk and North Essex Foundation Trust bosses revealed a bid to outsource their jobs.

The strike will run from today until Saturday at Colchester Hospital, in Turner Road.​

Support - Sue, Helga and Barbara on the picket line (Image: Newsquest)

Helga Pile, head of health at Unison, joined the Colchester Hospital picket line to show her support for staff.

She said: "I wanted to come down today just to show the staff here that they have the full support of the whole of Unison in their fight to stay in the NHS because we know it really matters to staff.

"Working for the NHS is something to take great pride in.

"They know that as soon as the services are outsourced the quality of the services goes down, it becomes more difficult to keep staff and it is the patients who suffer.

"They care so much about their patients that they have had to take the difficult decision to go on strike."

Strike Action - Helga alongside more striking support staff (Image: Newsquest)

Ms Pile said NHS bosses should "actually take the time" to listen to the staff and what they are saying.

She continued: "We are really calling on the trust today to rethink privatisation.

"The fact that the staff are so convinced it's the wrong decision should really make them sit up and take notice

"The NHS is all about its staff. It can't run without the staff and the staff are so vital to everything that goes on in hospitals.

"We want the trust to rethink this, to actually take the time to come and talk to the staff to hear what they are saying and work with them to find another way to keep them in the NHS and look at how the services can be changed."