A RALLY will be held at QEII Square on Saturday, August 17, to drum up public support for Albury-Wodonga hospital workers trying to prevent privatisation.
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It’s the latest move in the campaign by the Hospital Services Union to step up its fight to avoid the contracting of services including cleaning, food preparation, warehousing and distribution.
The union sees the move as a threat to 170 public service jobs on the Border.
About 40 workers met on the Albury hospital lawns yesterday to discuss the campaign.
They chanted “Save our services” before the union’s NSW state secretary Gerard Hayes addressed them for 20 minutes.
Mr Hayes said standards could be jeopardised by outsourcing services.
“What is at stake for Albury is you will have an inferior service that is profit driven as opposed to patient focused,” he said.
“Fifty per cent of people who work in hospitals are not doctors and nurses.
“A chain of events need to occur and these people are the backbone of that chain.”
The HSU has 150 financial members at Albury hospital.
Mr Hayes said the union was concerned AWH was being treated as a “guinea pig” for a NSW government hospital rationalisation agenda.
AWH is a cross-border health service under the Victorian government’s control but is reliant on funding from NSW.
“The reality is the NSW government had the responsibility here and partially abrogated that to another state,” Mr Hayes said.
“They need to hold the people in this community in the high esteem they need to be.
“This government came in and said they were going to maintain the hospital system and improve it.
“You don’t do that by cutting away, making salaries less and then promoting profits.”
One worker said savings being sought by AWH would be minimal as no contractor would do the job for nothing.
