Nurses in Victoria are defying a Federal Court order and continuing to strike in support of a campaign for an 18.5% pay increase over just under four years and against changes that would worsen the nurse/patient ratio.
The Baillieu government has offered 2.5%, well below the official rate of inflation and even further behind the household inflation rate. In other words the Baillieu government is offering nurses real wage cuts.
In addition the Government wants to change the nurse/patient ratio so there are fewer nurses dealing with more patients.
The dispute has been going on for over six months, and after the officials called off action last year, the battle is now escalating as nurses realise they can’t win without a real fight.
Defying a Federal Court order means nurses can be fined up to $6600 a day or even jailed. Their pay is now being docked or threatened.
As Lucile Keen in the Australian Financial Review reported on 1 March, here’s what some nurses said in response to that possibility on facebook.
“Come fine me, come jail me,’ said one.
Another said ‘I will stand defiant in the face of the Fair Work Australia order and the orders from the Federal Court of Australia. I will not stop protesting to ensure the rights of all Victorians to receive a high standard of healthcare. This registered nurse is prepared to be fined $6600 daily and to be jailed.’
What spirit! What fight?
Will the employers try to fine or even jail nurses? Perhaps, although a government or bosses fining or jailing nurses over defending health care standards is a recipe for industrial and political disaster for the ruling class and the government.
This fighting spirit of nurses has the potential to win real wage increases and defend the nurse/patient ratio, even perhaps improve it, and in doing that send a clear message. Strikes can win.
Of course there is still a lot of water to go under the Princes Bridge yet, and the timidity and incorrect strategies of the union leadership can never be underestimated.
Nevertheless at the time of writing nurses are still walking off the job at various hospitals across Victoria.
Workers in other unions could not only learn from the Victorian nurses, but in light of the threatened fines and potential imprisonment, they could organise support, including striking, for the nurses.
For example shutting down public transport or building sites in Melbourne in support of nurses would escalate the dispute and give it an even better chance of winning and at the same time challenge the rotten restrictions on strikes under Labor’s Orwellian legislation, the Fair Work Act.
The nurses’ fight is our fight. Victory to Victorian nurses.
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