Women workers are leading the resistance! Paid far less than their counterparts in the rest
of Australia, nurses, allied health workers and teachers have ignited a spark in the union
movement. They are showing other unionists, battered by Howard’s vicious anti-union
legislation, the how and why of sheer defiance. Victoria’s nurses and teachers saw out
2007 with the most awesome industrial action seen in years!
It started with the nurses. The state Labor government of John Brumby arrogantly
rejected the Australian Nursing Federation’s (ANF) claim for a 6.5 percent pay rise,
refusing to move from its insulting 3.25 percent “offer.” Labor’s contempt was
practically unbridled: it demanded greater numbers of patients per nurse, substitution of
medically untrained personal carers for professional nurses and even more exhausting
rosters. Threats and harassment didn’t stop nurses from carrying out nine days of
industrial action. Their stopwork on October 16 filled Melbourne’s huge Dallas Brooks
Hall. When they went ahead with work bans, Brumby used WorkChoices to dock the pay
of 600 nurses, even though they were on the wards caring for patients.
The ANF did this just before the November 24 federal election and won strong
community support for their stand. Union officials usually stifle pre-election strikes,
claiming that industrial action harms Labor’s chances of a win. ANF leaders didn’t play
the game this time — and Brumby caved in! Nurses won pay increases of up to 6 percent,
the retention of nurse/patient ratios and a government promise to fund 300 more nursing
positions. Sure, they didn’t get the full increase they first demanded. But they laid the
ground for further struggle by demonstrating what militancy can achieve.
Their win fortified teachers, who have been campaigning for a 30% pay increase,
reduced class sizes and the abolition of contract teaching positions. Brumby dug in: 3.25
percent, “productivity gains,” blah blah blah. The Australian Education Union (AEU)
went through the WorkChoices hoops. A bureaucratic stuff-up disenfranchised thousands
of members, yet in the compulsory secret ballot, 92% voted for strike action. Three days
before the federal election, 10,000 teachers packed Melbourne’s Vodaphone Arena.
The unanimous vote for a further strike on February 14, and rolling regional stoppages
to follow, showed the determination of teachers to emulate their nursing sisters and
brothers. Wearing bright red AEU ponchos to stave off the freezing rain, they marched on
state parliament to press home their determination.
It doesn’t stop there. On December 20, physiotherapists, social workers, occupational
therapists and other allied health professionals held a snap strike over pay and career
structures. Members of the Victorian Health Services Union, they defied an Industrial
Relations Commission order not to strike. Again, Brumby is using WorkChoices to stop
further industrial action. At the time of this writing, the union is going through the red
tape of applying for a secret ballot on future stoppages.
Militancy, solidarity and tenacity are the first principles of unionism. Education and
health workers are taking a courageous lead and showing the entire union movement
what is possible. Wherever we are, workers should step in with them. Then nothing can
stop us!
