Catalogue Number
NMLH.1992.807
Object Name
Painting
Title
Taking Scabs To Work Barking Cleaners
Place
Barking & Essex & England & UK
Events
dispute & Barking cleaners strike
Date
1980's
Creator(s)
Rushton, S
Description
Painting Taking Scabs to Work, Barking Hospital, by Steve Rushton. Depicting scuffles between police and workers at Barking Hospital. The painting shows nurses in windows looking down on to a scuffle which sees police grappling with and arresting striking workers.
On 19 March 1984, eighty-seven domestic workers at Barking Hospital voted to go on strike rather than accept new contracts from Crothall & Co, in the privatisation of cleaning services at the hospital. The terms of the contract involved a 40% reduction in cleaning hours, reducing the average wage from £87 a week to £47 (with some women earning as little as £17 a week). The domestic workers would lose all sick pay entitlement and some holiday pay. The standards of hygiene in the hospital were to be dramatically reduced, with toilets cleaned only once a day, and the number of staff on each ward halved. The domestic workers felt that both the conditions of employment, and the levels of hygiene in the hospital were unacceptable. The women took strike action for 18 months, and maintained a 24 hour, 7 day a week picket at the hospital.
The painter, Steve Rushton visited the picket line outside Baking Hospital, and the painting was produced from the scenes he observed.
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