ABSTRACT
The strike of ancillary workers at Westminster Hospital was one engagement in a long campaign over pay beds in National Health Service hospitals. The management planned to close 38 NHS beds while bathrooms were being improved and nurses were on holiday. The National Union of Public Employees first withdrew nonmedical services from private patients, then initiated a general work-to-rule after volunteers had served meals, and finally called brief lightning strikes. A management spokesman claimed that in the face of a falling market the least cost-effective unit had to go. But, Green reiterated, the workers did not accept this view. There was fuller coverage of the noisy confrontation between Foot and the workers in News at Ten. Trevor McDonald reported that although the demonstrators were good-natured enough at first, on hearing of the Government’s proposals their anger was directed at Michael Foot.
