NT nurses strike

DARWIN — On July 26 NT nurses decided to reject a 4% pay offer, and take industrial action for the first time in twenty years. With an annual rate of inflation of 6%, the government's offer represents a drop in real wages. The nurses are demanding an 18% pay rise over two years.

In Darwin bans have been placed on non-vital elective surgery, nurses are refusing to enter data or answer phones and one in eight hospital beds have been closed. Alice Springs Hospital nurses are also taking industrial action and those in other regional centres may follow.

The nurses have reported strong public support. The secretary of the Australian Nurses Federation, Paul Nieuwenhoven said, “It's been excellent, members have been ringing people who had visits cancelled and just about everyone has said 'good on you’”.

Unionists picket Labor

SYDNEY — Eighty unionists, ALP members and socialist activists showed their opposition to the NSW state Labor government's assault on workers' compensation outside a state ALP administrative committee meeting on August 3.

Many of the participants were members of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, including many of the sacked Metroshelf workers, and the construction division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

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