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 Reinstate Karen Reissmann
Stop Union victimisation
We have a right to fight NHS cuts.
Dear Branch Secretary,
We are writing to ask your support for Karen Reissmann, a nurse for 25 years and an elected member of Unison’s national health executive, who was suspended from work on June 15th. On a Friday afternoon, an important outpatient appointment with a very vulnerable patient and her consultant was interrupted, and on the direct orders of the chief executive, she was instructed to leave the out-patient consultation and the hospital.
The false allegations (of bringing the Trust into disrepute; behaving in a manner such that they no longer have confidence in her as an employee; and an allegation that Karen misused work time) are directly linked to her actions as a trade unionist and UNISON officer fighting to defend the NHS and its staff over the last year. Management clearly want to sack her. They have since added new allegations of “telling people she was suspended, claiming the allegations are false and allowing the press to print misleading articles”! All would be gross misconduct.
Karen and her union branch have been at the forefront of fighting cuts and the outsourcing of mental health services in Manchester. They had a successful 2 day strike early this year. Karen has often been interviewed speaking out against government policy of cuts and fragmentation of the NHS and the affects on services.
However it is not Karen who has brought her Trust into disrepute rather it is those who run our NHS nationally and locally. It is these people who have wasted all the extra money on PFI not patient care and they who are determined to sell off our services so that NHS is in danger of becoming merely a logo.
Gordon Brown has made it clear NHS cuts will continue under his leadership. Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust are in official “turnaround” and (despite the £161million under-spend in the North West last year) “have” to save £3million this year. This can only be done by making savage cuts. They know UNISON will oppose these cuts.
If they are allowed to sack Karen, they hope to leave NHS staff too frightened to speak up and thus have a clear run to implement their cuts. This cannot be allowed.
Members voted unanimously at the biggest branch meeting ever to ballot for strike action over this. There are 700 members who work in mental health in the branch. We will need your support in this, please send pledges of financial support which will help to bolster people’s confidence to vote yes. Our management are very serious about this. We need a very big response.
What can you do?
- send an email protesting to Shelia Foley, Chief executive of Karen’s trust on Sheila.foley@mhsc.nhs.uk and copy to her union branch unison@zen
- Sign the petition in support of Karen and send to above address (petition enclosed)
- Pass the enclosed model resolution and pledge an amount of financial support to us in the event of us taking strike action.
- Invite Karen or a speaker from our branch to your branch committee to explain the issues further.
Thanking you in advance.
Caroline Bedale and Derrick Goold
Joint Branch Secretaries.
MODEL MOTION
This branch notes
- the suspension of Karen Reissmann, branch chair and member of UNISON’s national health executive, by Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust management on Friday 15th June.
- That the 3 allegations against her all relate directly to her role as a union official, i.e. “she is accused of having engaged in activities from August 2006 until now which have seriously affected the reputation of the trust, behaved in a manner which has undermined confidence in her as an employee, and suspicion of misusing time during her employment as a CPN”.
- Manchester’s mental health trust is officially in turnaround and is expected to save over £3million this year which can only be done by savage cuts in service.
- That Karen’s branch has been at the forefront of fighting cuts and out-sourcing over the last year, including 2 days strike, and would oppose any further cuts.
We believe this attack is an attempt to stop Karen and any other Trust employee from speaking out and opposing cuts, privatisation and marketisation in the NHS.
This branch completely condemns the trust for this attack on an elected branch and national officer and demands her immediate reinstatement.
We believe we need to organise the full weight of the trade union movement to stop this attack and therefore agree to
- Send a protest to the Chief executive, Sheila Foley on Sheila.foley@mhsc.nhs.uk or fax to 0161 882 1033 with a copy to the branch at union office, Chorlton House, 70 Manchester Rd, Chorlton M21 9UN or unison@zen.co.uk.
- Send a message of support to the branch which has agreed to ballot its mental health members for indefinite strike action.
- Make a financial pledge of £………..… towards their strike fund.
- Circulate the branch petition demanding Karen’s reinstatement.
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