BY SUSAN AUSTIN
CAIRNS A meeting of health union delegates and members on August 7 launched a campaign committee to organise the intensifying health workers' industrial dispute. This followed a similar meeting the week before which voted to reject the government's latest offer in the enterprise bargaining dispute involving five unions.
The earlier meeting had also decided to step up industrial action and condemned Premier Peter Beattie and his government colleagues for their derogatory comments about the workers and the government's poor approach to negotiations.
"We can't work any harder than we already are", explained Fran Eichner, a hospital administration worker and Australian Services Union member on August 7. "Our workloads have increased even though [hospital] bed numbers have been reduced this is because of the greater turnover of patients. We are not replaced for sick leave or rostered days off.
"This dispute is not just about money, we are also after better conditions. If this treatment by Queensland Health continues, the efficiency of this hospital cannot hold on."
The August 7 meeting's participants were enthusiastic and intended to do whatever it takes to make the government listen. There was firm support for the idea of a district-wide, 24-hour, combined health unions' strike. Union members are also in the process of implementing further work bans.
"We have made significant progress", stated Kevin O'Sullivan, Queensland Public Sector Union Cairns industrial organiser. "When we started, Queensland Health was offering a miserly 3% a year and a roll-back of the gains we'd made during the last enterprise bargaining agreement.
"I think [it] expected our members to be a push-over, but they haven't been. Instead, through launching a campaign involving work-bans and stop-work rallies, we've pressured the government into meaningful negotiations. [It has] since offered 3.5% a year and [retention of] many clauses from the previous enterprise bargain. But the offer still doesn't go far enough towards improving the delivery of health services for Queenslanders and delivering fair wages and conditions for employees."
The state Labor government has also announced that it will shed a further 1000 jobs from the public sector through a new round of voluntary early retirement packages. The delegates' meeting condemned the plan. O'Sullivan explained: "The government doesn't intend to re-fill these positions, meaning even less jobs and a further decline in services. The rural and remote communities will be the worst hit."
From Green Left Weekly, August 14, 2002.
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