The news that Karen Reissmann has been sacked [1] is a travesty and a direct attack on all trade unionists. I must be more naive than I thought, as I had expected that the Trust would pull themselves back from the brink given (a) Karen hasn't actually done anything wrong, and (b) her colleagues have taken a significant amount of industrial action already and have indicated a willingness to go to all-out indefinite strike action if necessary to win Karen's re-instatement.

Others have argued, and I guess they must be right, that Karen is such a good trade unionist, that the bad publicity, the inevitable tribunal defeat and the compensation the Trust will be forced to pay her for what is unquestionably a wrongful dismissal is all a price worth paying to be rid of someone who had organised so effectively on behalf of UNISON to stop the Trust making cuts.

Everyone who works in the NHS should be clear: if the Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust are allowed to get away with this, it will be a green light for other NHS employers to sack anyone they think might stand in their way when it comes to cuts and privatisation. Karen's situation could apply to any one of us. Every trade unionist, every worker, must play their part in winning Karen's reinstatement. Nothing less is acceptable.