Nurses and midwives take historic strike action for a 15 percent pay rise
With each passing day, it increasingly appears as though Chris Minns has a personal vendetta against nurses and midwives. Just over a year ago, the NSW premier and his government appeared to be the light at the end of the tunnel for members of the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association—many even campaigned for him, knocking on doors and handing out how-to-vote cards on election day, mobilised by his promise to introduce safe nurse-to-patient ratios and lift the Liberals’ public sector pay cap.
Today, he is a hate figure. At strike rallies, his face is displayed on larger-than-life placards, adorned with devil horns, large red crosses and screeds and symbols some would consider inappropriate to reproduce in print.
The association took historic industrial action on 10 September—the largest single strike day in our history. Ten and a half thousand rostered nurses and midwives walked off the job to attend an angry rally at state Parliament. This was followed by a four-week period of “intensive negotiations”, during which the association agreed to a set of recommendations put forth by the Industrial Relations Commission to suspend industrial action in exchange for an interim 3 percent pay rise. By the third week, it was clear that the government was not prepared to offer anything more. These negotiations were clearly an attempt by the government and the commission to destroy the momentum we had built. Fortunately, they failed. On 13 November, we struck again, beating our previous record: 13,000 nurses and midwives went on strike.
The strike took place just days after an extraordinary pay-rise agreement was reached with the NSW Police. The anger in the hospitals was palpable. An increase of 22 percent to almost 40 percent for some officers, to be paid over four years and back paid to July, made the NSW Police the best paid force in Australia. Meanwhile, Minns says he can’t find the money to pay nurses and midwives in line with the rest of the country. This means more money for the officers that the government sics on Palestine solidarity and climate justice protesters, but nothing for those who care for the sick. It’s money for a male-dominated profession, but for the women in caring professions, dedication is expected to pay the rent.
Minns is digging his heels in. He complains that we are being unreasonable because he already gave us improved nurse-to-patient ratios. This is absurd. For one, safe nurse-to-patient ratios are a fantasy if the staff cannot be hired and retained to implement them—there is only one emergency department in one hospital that has reached adequate staffing. And whose choice was it to make improvements in patient safety come out of our pockets? As one speaker at the rally put it: “Should we be pitching in for hip replacements and pacemakers?”
As long as the government remains intransigent, we need to be on the front foot. We have the momentum, we have the public on our side (and always will), and we have thousands of union activists who are willing to put in the work to win what we deserve. It’s time to push on with more strikes, it’s time to close beds, and it’s time to cause a crisis for Minns and his increasingly unpopular government until he folds to our demands.
