Showing great solidarity and courage, Victorian nurses have remained strong and united against attempts to intimidate and slander them in their struggle for decent pay and conditions. Their victory means better health services for all patients in Victorian public hospitals.
The ANF claim included a 6 percent increase in wages in each of the next three years and for improved nurse-patient ratios, especially in emergency and maternity wards. The state government offered only 3.25 percent, at a time when there is a crisis in the hospital system and more nurses are leaving to seek better paid work and less arduous conditions.
After many hours of fruitless Enterprise Bargaining negotiations with the State government, the Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) called a mass meeting of members on October 16 and recommended imposing work bans during the so-called ‘protected bargaining period’.
Over 3000 nurses enthusiastically endorsed the proposal, and it was progressively implemented in hospitals across the state. The bans resulted in the closure of more than 1200 hospital beds and hundreds of elective surgery procedures being cancelled. The industrial action did not involve strikes and the nurses continued to work. Although the bans were hard-hitting, they were also targeted and responsible, and did not put seriously ill people at risk. Cancer wards, palliative care, maternity and renal dialysis wards were all exempt from the bans.
Lisa Fitzpatrick, ANF Victorian Secretary said, “Nurses are extremely angry and frustrated about the government’s lack of understanding about the work that they do and the (State Labor Government’s) lip service paid.”
The bosses’ courts
Predictably, the state government and associated health service bosses then applied to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) to terminate the ‘protected bargaining period’. That’s right, industrial action is ‘protected’, that is until workers start exercising their rights to take industrial action and the bosses start to hurt. So much for worker’s rights!
The AIRC duly rubber-stamped the bosses’ application and made orders calling on the union to lift all work bans. After consultation, ANF Victorian Secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick expressed the defiant position of the nurses, “The orders will not cease the industrial action. Members have resolved unanimously that the industrial action will remain in place until there is an acceptable outcome to their enterprise agreement.”
Defying WorkChoices
Under the vicious WorkChoices laws, the nurses copped the loss of four hours pay for every day of the industrial action taken, including mass meetings to democratically consider the situation. Threats of individual fines of up to $6600 were bandied about by the hospital bosses, who were reading the riot act with standover tactics and intimidation that even the ABCC couldn’t outdo. These outrageous threats and intimidation only strengthened the nurses’ resolve to continue their “illegal” industrial action for improvement in pay and conditions.
They received strong support from other unions, and many thousands of expressions of respect and sympathy from hospital patients, sections of the medical industry and the general public.
Australian Medical Association Victorian President Doug Travis stated, “We need to make it attractive enough for nurses to keep nursing, because our hospitals will fall apart if we don’t have them, just as surely as they will if we don’t have any doctors.” The Ambulance Employees’ Union Secretary Steve McGhie strongly backed the nurses. “Nurses need to be properly remunerated, or they will walk away from Victorian hospitals and it will be the Victorian community that will be the loser. Paramedics are right behind the nurses, and we believe most Victorians are too.”
The next stop on October 24 was the Federal Court, where Justice Weinburg pulled back from the brink, deferring a decision to grant an injunction to stop the bans. The injunction would see the nurses’ union and individual nurses fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for ignoring the order to lift the bans. This allowed additional time for negotiation, and for the nurses to gather support for their mass meeting the following day.
Unity and solidarity
The ANF called a mass meeting of members on 25 October, to consider the union’s report on negotiations and plan their next course of action.
The word went out. Hundreds of unionists from other industries and trades assembled with the community in a massive guard of honour as the nurses arrived in their thousands, busload after busload from all over Victoria. They entered Festival Hall to the cheers, clapping and chants of their fellow unionists and community supporters, who waved flags and banners and wished them well. A number of nurses were overcome with emotion at the strength of support shown. As one comrade put it, “This is the very best of the working class on display”.
Unity and solidarity carried the day
The 5,000 strong mass meeting of nurses endorsed a last-minute settlement. It amounted to a 3.8 - 6 percent wage increase over 4 years, the promise of an extra 500 nursing positions, and the retention of nurse-patient ratios which the government had wanted to scrap altogether. For the nurses, it was a clear victory on some of their key claims. But the fight is not over.
The courageous stand by the nurses’ union leadership was based on building massive and united support throughout the state. It really was the nurses’ struggle and they all contributed both individually and collectively. With this sort of backing, victory is truly possible. “If you don’t fight, you lose”.
|
Home | Editorial | Local News | Features | Marxism Today | International News | Archive | Search the Site