BY MARCEL CAMERON
BRISBANE — It's not surprising that Premier Peter Beattie and his
ministers have consistently underestimated the anger and determination
of nurses. When was the last time a minister had to visit a public hospital
outside of an election campaign?
With courage hardened by daily exposure to the intolerable and worsening
condition of the state's grossly underfunded public health system, nurses
are fighting for far more than decent pay.
They've been at the front-line of defending what's left of the public
health system in Queensland, something that's in the interest of all working
people.
The nurses' defiance, and the decision by other health workers to take
action and dramatically escalate the dispute, has been an inspiration to
working people longing to see Queensland unions fight back against the
anti-worker, economic rationalist agenda of the Beattie Labor government.
The stakes are high in this dispute. Beattie has shown that he's prepared
to use an industrial tactic that not even former premier Sir Joh Bjelke
Petersen would have contemplated. Had Beattie been able to force the union
to an undemocratic secret ballot, it would set a very dangerous precedent.
If the nurses can win this dispute, it would be a clear signal that
workers can take on the state government and win.
This is precisely what Peter Beattie fears most of all. In 1998, the
federal Coalition government conspired with waterfront boss Chris Corrigan
to sack Maritime Union of Australia members and replace them with scab
workers. The turning point in the dispute was when thousands of unionists
and other members of the community joined MUA members in mass, peaceful
pickets on the wharves.
This lesson is important — health workers can win this dispute and can
force improvements to the sorry state of public health, if they are supported
by thousands of others prepared to join their actions. Beattie is already
on the back foot — let's go all out to support the nurses in winning a
victory for all of us!
[Marcel Cameron is a member of the Democratic Socialist Party.]
From Green Left Weekly, July 10, 2002.
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