GSG 17-20 CWU Gesture to Frontline Health Workers
28/May/2020
Description
Over the coming days, CWU representatives from various Branches across the country will be delivering a donation of over 5,000 tubes Aloe Propolis Cream to Frontline Nursing staff in over 25 Hospitals across the country.
Since the COVID-19 crisis commenced, the Finance Sub Committee of the National Executive Council have been in receipt of numerous requests from members and Branches calling on the Union to assist frontline health workers through the CWU charitable fund. Following discussions with the Irish Nurses & Midwives Organisation (INMO), it was agreed we would attempt, insofar as it was possible, to fulfil the need for frontline health workers to be provided with non-chemical creams that would help them ease the discomfort and irritation caused to the skin by PPE, particularly from masks, visors and hand-sanitisers. The idea originated from a hospital support group who provided this cream to the staff in the ICU in Tallaght Hospital where it proved very effective and very popular, and thus we arrived at this idea with the INMO. This proposal was then agreed by the CWU NEC.
The cost to the Union is in the region of €70k, but in recognition of the gesture by the CWU, the agents for the Forever Propolis Cream, have agreed to return their bonuses/commission on this product to the tune of almost €10k. I would also like to thank them for their solidarity in this gesture.
Presently, the consignment of cream is on its way to the Dublin Mails Centre, where it will be broken-down by our Branch activists and sent to CWU representatives in the areas where the Hospitals are located. The quantities of the product and the breakdown has been agreed and decided by the INMO with no input whatsoever from the CWU.
This gesture is a drop in the ocean when compared to the overall needs of frontline health service workers, but I do believe it is the type of gesture that can be taken up by other business groups and trade unions in a show of real solidarity and an understanding of the problems that these workers face on a daily basis.