“Don’t wash your hands of our laundry” is the campaigning call from UNISON Airedale health branch in Yorkshire.
The branch has got together with colleagues in the GMB and Keighley Trades Council to launch an online petition to save the in-house laundry at Airedale hospital, which provides a service across the region.
UNISON points out that the laundry “has been providing high quality linen services, keeping patients in comfort and staff in clean hygienic uniforms” since 1970.
In addition, it “provides to hundreds of people in medical settings from North Yorkshire to Leeds and Bradford, as well as for ill people at home”.
But now the management at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust say the service is “unviable” and may not be worth investing in.
The unions point out that this puts not just jobs, but a high quality in-house service at risk.
They are asking as many people as possible to sign the petition, calling on the trust to “do everything possible to keep the laundry in-house and its 40+ staff in work”.
You can sign the petition here