The Socialist Party says
NURSES: INDUSTRIAL ACTION & PEOPLE POWER CAN WIN

Socialist Party leaflet - Available as a PDF here

Today's rally should be the launch of a real campaign by the INO and PNA to force the HSE and the government to concede to the nurses legitimate pay claim and a 35 hour week. No progress has been made on the nurses’ demands since the last rally because leading officials of both unions mistak mistakenly placed their faith in the Labor Court.

The Labor Court exists to maintain "industrial peace" at the expense of workers wages, and conditions. Therefore there was an inevitability in the Labor Court’s decision to side with HSE management and the government by effectively calling on nurses to enter benchmarking.

Leading officials of both the INO and the PNA are on record as advocates of the "social partnership" process. Yet nurses have correctly rejected benchmarking because it is the latest "social partnership" scam that the government are using to drive down wages and attack working conditions. A strategy to achieve better pay and a shorter working week for nurses has to be based on a complete rejection of "social partnership".

This strategy should be founded on mobilising the strength of the INO and PNA’s 40,000 members and the widespread support for the nursing profession in society. The Socialist Party believes that at today today’s rally nurses should call for an immediate ballot on a strategy of industrial action up to and including strike action.

Nurses are highly respected and held in the highest esteem throughout this country. There is an understanding of the invaluable role they play and that. they are the backbone of our health service. The INO and the PNA should utilise this support in the battle against the HSE and the government.

The INO and the PNA should call "monster" public rallies and demonstrations in all major urban centres. Nurses can win the battle for the "hearts and minds" of the general public if a concerted media campaign is waged to explain the just nature of their pay claim.

The crisis in the health service is consistently the number one issue for people in successive opinion polls. The INO and the PNA have an opportunity to win better pay and conditions for their members and also to mobilise thousands of people around the country in a campaign to force this government to implement real emergency measures to end the health crisis. Up to 150,000 marched last December in support of the Irish Ferries workers - nurses can mobilise similar support for their just cause.

The general election is only months away away. Against this backdrop a campaign of industrial action by nurses, backed up by a national "movement" of people power can force this weakened government and their stooges in the HSE management to concede the nurses’ claim.

The Socialist Party believes that benchmarking and "social partnership" are designed to introduce widespread privatisation throughout the public sector. We are campaigning to reclaim the unions from the right-wing officials who have bought into the pro-business agenda of the establishment parties. The crises that afflict our society in the health service, education, housing and social infrastructure could all be eradicated if society was run and organised for the needs of people not the profits of big business and the rich.

Socialist Party Demands

• Full implementation of the 10.6% wage claim with an additional above in inflation cost of living increase, back dated for all nurses and midwives.

• A 35 hour week for all health workers without loss of pay.

• Reject "social partnership" and the government’s privatisation agenda.

As a step towards free comprehensive health care for all in a public health system:

• Emergency measures to provide extra hospital beds and staff to end the A&E crisis and the waiting lists.

• End the abuse of the public health system by private medicine. Scrap the two-tier health service.

• For health clinics in all areas to provide primary medical care for all free of charge.