Online Tutoring on Nurses Strike

The nurses’ strike of 1986 is one of the longest strikes that history has seen. It inflamed the politician and the industrial arena of that time (Ross, 1987). It was a battle against the union of nurses and government officials on wages and better working conditions. Examining what led to such an extensive strike, it is important to shed light on the basic challenges of the Nursing industry.

 

THE NURSING INDUSTRY

The Australian Health Industry comprises of a large unit of nurses (George, 1989). In 2017, the number of registered nurses amounted to 379,699, out of which, 323,122 were employed. 60.1% of these nurses were employed by the public sector (Nurses and Midwives, 2017). History has witnessed multiple attempts at negotiation by the unions over disputes on pay and working condition. Nurses are overworked, underpaid and understaffed throughout their careers. After years of dispute, negotiation, bans, and strikes, the efforts of the 1986 strike finally resulted in the favor of the nursing staff.

Starting in April 1975, 4000 nurses marched the Victorian Parliament demanding better wages and better working conditions (Graetz, 1989). Between 1977 – 1979, the nurses of New South Wales and Queensland were involved in multiple strikes, bans, and picketing. The heat eventually died down but picked up again during 1982 when the government declared deductions in the health care budget by 1.5% that led to decreased wages and loss of jobs as a result of the reduction in the number of hospital beds (Bridgen, 2013). 18 months into the negotiations, the nurses finally went on a complete strike out on November 1983 withdrawing all labor and services with the aim of protesting against the budget cuts.

During the same period, The Royal Australian Nurses Federation (RANF) was working towards removing the “no-strike” clause imposed during The Great Depression (George, 1989). By 1984, the RANF was finally able to dump the no-strike clause marking a start to the nationwide strikes.

By 1984, further strikes and bans on non-nursing duties continued by the New South Wales nurses that eventually led the government to the decision of hiring 300 additional non-nursing staff funded from the nursing budget (Bridgen, 2013).  As a response to the decision, the RANF continued the bans until the government was forced to declare the hiring of 700 additional non-nursing resources by 1985; one that is not funded by the nursing budgets.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Overall, the nurses feel that their dedication and skills have been taken for granted throughout history. The caregiving nature of their jobs has been used as a weapon to discourage them from conducting prolonged strikes. The profession, although highly dominated by females, is one that requires to extend care, empathy and warmth towards patients. This is often the reason why females dominate the profession globally (James, 2016). In 1985, the Australian Healthcare Industry experienced the impact of technological innovation with improved equipment. As a result, patients were treated faster leading to higher turnovers. However, the new equipment needed more manpower. Increased turnover of the patient resulted in increased non-nursing responsibilities such as paperwork of admission and discharge (James, 2016). The stress was building up and the essence of the patient-nurse relationship that is built on warmth and care was suffering as nurses had to handle multiple patients at the same time.

THE STRIKE BEGINS

Demanding better wages, increased staffing, improved working hours and objecting to non-nursing duties, the nurses took to the streets with the campaign called “Keep Nurses Nursing”. Bans were placed on wearing uniforms and working above the desired patient to nurse ratio.  As a response to the campaign, the health minister, David White, proposed better wages and working conditions that were not even close to what the nurses were demanding (Graetz, 1989). The plan was to be implemented over a period of 3 years with a no-strike policy and a commitment to increased productivity.

The union and the nurses rejected the proposal. A 5-day strike continued with an only skeleton staff at the hospitals and ended with the government beginning to negotiate on non-nursing duties only. As negotiations continued, the nurses went back to work. By August 1986, after the complete revoke of qualification allowance, the massive strike began where nurses completely walked out of hospitals including emergencies and ICUs. The government retaliated by threating to hold up national wages, having protestors arrested and using the police to break the picketing (Bridgen, 2013). The government was not willing to negotiate as they believed that the nurses would eventually give in (Graetz, 1989). They declared the State Enrolled Nurses were to be used in the hospitals. This made things worse. Eventually, two days before the strike ended, the government declared to revoke their decision on the use of the SEN however, they still did not give in to the claims of the union. Irene Bloger, the leading militant, stood her ground and supported the nurses’ strike (Ross, 1987). Eventually, the Cain government and David White agreed to the complete package of the union and the 50-day long strike came to an end with a massive victory in the favor of the nurses.

 

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Throughout the strikes, the major stakeholders involved were the nurses, the government officials, and the general public.

The Nursing Staff

As history reveals, nurses have been overworked, underpaid and understaffed. Their dedication and loyalty towards patients’ care have always been their priority. Nurses having an experience of 20 years or more find themselves struggling with pay and career structure (Bridgen, 2013). Since 60% of the nursing staff is employed within the government hospitals, a huge chunk of these face career stagnation and low pays throughout their service period. Through imposing bans and strikes, their objective was to derive better working conditions, career structures and pay for their profession. The RFAN members were not allowed to go on strike until 1985. Moreover, negotiations would continue for years while the nurses suffered under the same conditions. The first strike of 1983 was the result of prolonged negotiations that lasted for 18 months, producing no results.  This, however, was not a nationwide strike as the other states were still bounded by the “no strike” clause (James, 2016).

The union’s goal was to create a nationwide uproar on its claims as a strategy to pressurize the government. In pursuit of achieving their goal, they were able to revoke the no-strike clause in 1985 that eventually led to the nationwide strike of 5000 nurses. This was the first strategic move by the RANF.

The protest started softly in the initial phases. The nurses imposed bans on non-nursing duties such as paperwork for admissions and discharge. They refused to wear their uniforms and worked around the patient to nurse ratio as per the RANF’s calculations (Ross, 1987). These were open protest yet, not to an extreme of completely revoking patient care. Throughout the time, negotiations were in place with the governing bodies.

Eventually, as a result of non-satisfying proposals through negotiations and David White’s attempt to have hospital administration not supportting the strike, the nurses went onto their first complete strike that lasted for 5 days (Tiereny, J). With only skeleton staff at the hospitals, the protest took the streets.

The aims and objectives of a strike is to pressurize the employer into giving in to the claims and demands of a union by withdrawing all labor (Anderson, R). This is often successful in manufacturing industries where complete industrial production stops, resulting in stock shortages and loss of sales. Within nursing, this is quite challenging because there are lives dependent on these services.

As a response to the complete abolishment of the qualification allowances, nurses went on a complete strike withdrawing all skeleton staff from emergency units (Ross, 1987). Alongside, picketing was also in action by the protesting nurses. Picketing is where the employees try to build pressure on the employer by discouraging other stakeholders of the business from performing day to day activities. By blocking supplies and entry to the hospitals, picketing was capturing the massive attention of the media and public.

From the above analysis, we can see that the nurses’ goals were to have their claims approved no matter how long it took.

The Government

The government had two major key players. David White, the Health Minister and Industrial Relations Minister, Steve Crabbs.  Their goals were to restore the balance while not having to increase their budgets and restore patient welfare by ending the strikes. They used a form of collective bargaining called “distributive bargaining”. Under such a bargaining technique, the employer aims at redistributing the funds from a fixed budget (Tiereny, J).  As we can see from the case study, throughout the claims of the nurses, the government had offered multiple packages and proposals, each of them were either redistributing the same budget or resulting in an overall loss for the nurses. The complete strikeout was the result of revoking complete qualification allowances while increasing the wages. This meant that even though the basic wages would be increased, the nurses would be facing a loss from having to invest the money in additional qualification (Ross, 1987). This also meant jeopardizing their career path. The government had also used threats to discourage union protests. They threaten to send the State Enrolled Nurses for the nursing jobs, demonstrating that the nurses were easily replaceable. Where the wages were increased for senior nurses, the graduate and trainee nurses were still offered miserable wages (Tiereny, J). Another technique used, in which a grade level was created, where the criteria were to have nurses with over 20 years of experience and multiple qualifications to the lowest grade.  This further weakened their case and as a result, the government had to agree to the complete package claim of the nurses resulting in increased budgets.

The overall aim of the government was to restore the balance without increasing the health care budgets.

The Community and General Public

As a result of the strikes, the general public did suffer when it came to health care services. The surgeons and physicians, although they were supportive, were understaffed and forced to shut down a few operation theaters.

On the other end, the general public supported the union’s cause. The strike was supported by the Meat Workers Union as well as the Builders Laborer Federation. They extended support by taking part in the protest and working on the streets with the nurses (James, 2016).  It seems that the various unions themselves were united in support of their fellow workers against the government and their policies. Their goal was to support the claims of the nurses. Although none of the unions officially extended support, the members of the union were seen protesting alongside the nurses. This demonstrates a unity that was the result of supporting each other’s professional needs.

 

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE DISPUTE

The case of the nurse’s strike of 1986 has made history. Although the strike has been discussed with the focus of pay and wages, the strike was mainly a result of escalated systematic issues of the nursing industry. The impact of the strike was improved working conditions and better career structures for the nurses (Phillips, 2012). This resulted in the retention of the nurses. Through the strikes, the RANF was able to create a better industrial arm that has supported the nurses’ interest in the years to proceed. The dedication of nurses is no longer used as an excuse to not treat them seriously and has provided immense support and standing to RANF within the industrial bodies.

On the other hand, the government imposed a no-strike clause for nurses and midwives. These actions are to result in massive fines and imprisonment lasting up to 12 months (Phillips, 2012). This has been done to protect the interests of patients and overall social welfare.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Australian Government, Department of Health (2017). Nurses and Midwives, 2017 Factsheet. Retrieved from https://hwd.health.gov.au/webapi/customer/documents/factsheets/2017/Nurses%20and%20Midwives%202017%20-%20NHWDS%20factsheet.pdf
2. James, N (2016, December 3). Lessons for today’s unionists from the Victorian nurses’ strike. Retrieved from https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/lessons-today%E2%80%99s-unionists-victorian-nurses%E2%80%99-strike
3. Definition of ‘Distributive Bargaining’ Retrieved from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/distributive-bargaining
4. (Anderson, R). STRIKES, LOCKOUTS, PICKETING AND REPLACEMENT WORKERS. Retrieved from https://www.go2hr.ca/legal/strikes-lockouts-picketing-and-replacement-workers
5. Phillips, R (2012, February 22). Fair Work Australia imposes no-strike bans on Victorian nurses. Retrieved from https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/02/nurs-f25.html
6. Bridgen, C (2013). Roll out the red carpet: Australian nurses on screen. Working USA, 16, no.5, pg 505-523. Retrieved from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/19537425.pdf
7. George, R (1989) Health Care and Public Policy: An Australian Analysis. Electronic Books.
8. Ross, L (1987). Dedication doesn’t pay the rent! The 1986 Victorian nurses Strike, Hecate, Vol X111. Retrieved from https://labourhistorycanberra.org/2016/06/dedication-doesnt-pay-the-rent-the-1986-victorian-nurses-strike/
9. Tiereny, J. The Blueprint for Union Organizing. Retreived from http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/anfv/strike-6.html
10. Graetz, B (1989). WORK SATISFACTION, UNIONISM AND MILITANCY AMONGST NURSES. Community Healthcare studies, vol XIII, Number 2.