STRIKERS resisting the transfer of hundreds of NHS jobs to a private company say healthcare managers are “playing a game of poker with our lives.”

Workers on today’s picket line in Bradford, who included porters, catering and domestic staff, are employed by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

The trust runs Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital in West Yorkshire.

Its bosses want to transfer the workers into the new “arm’s length” wholly owned subsidiary company Bradford Healthcare Facilities Management.

Around 600 NHS jobs are due to be transferred to the company in October.

The workers, who are members of public service union Unison, fear that the transfer out of NHS direct employment will endanger their pay and conditions. 

Across Britain NHS workers whose jobs have been privatised have been denied pay increases won by NHS staff.

The Bradford workers also believe that their NHS pensions will be under threat.

They have staged repeated strikes and will strike indefinitely from August 26.

On the picket outside Bradford Royal Infirmary today was catering worker Carolyn Hoddell who has worked for the NHS for three years.

“I’m on strike because they want to privatise us,” she told the Morning Star. “They want to move our jobs to a private company and we do not want to be with a private company.

“We know they will change our contracts and working conditions.

“They say we will be OK, but it’s as if they are playing a game of poker with our lives. They will not show us their plans.

“I started at Bradford Royal because I wanted to work for the NHS. I wanted to make a difference, I want to do my best for my patients. 

“I don’t want to be just a number who turns up for work. I’m proud to work for the NHS.”

A striking porter who did not want to be named said: “I am disgusted at the way they are treating us.”

The NHS Trust has promised that the workers’ terms and conditions will be protected for 25 years.

But the porter said: “It’s not legally binding. I can’t believe a word they say.”