Members of the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives Association (NSWNMA) celebrated the first day of spring with massive industrial action, involving dozens of public hospitals across the state and tens of thousands of nurses and midwives. This was the fourth action taken by these workers this year, and it was the most serious: strikes by all branches across the state.

We made an effort to go to the actions across Sydney in order to talk to nurses about what’s going on. This article is based on discussions with NSWNMA members from Royal Prince Alfred, Westmead, Bankstown, Blacktown and St George Hospitals, as well as our own reflections on the union’s campaign. 

While previous industrial actions culminated in large, united rallies in the city centre, the decision was made this time around to localise the strikes. Rallies took place at almost every public hospital, with some of the largest being at Westmead and Royal Prince Alfred. Intensity varied, but no area health service escaped serious disruption, and in that sense the strike was a tactical success.

Some of the wider feminist social implications should not be missed either: the majority of unionists and union delegates were women, with substantial numbers of them being of migrant background. Like all collective actions by workers in “feminised” industries, this strike is an important step forwards in both the feminist and trade union movements.

Pay and overwork: balancing the demands 

As with all strikes, it was easy to perceive some quite serious tensions between union officials and union members. The union officials pushed the demand for mandated nurse-to-patient ratios hard, practically to the exclusion of all other demands.

Mandated nurse-to-patient ratios are absolutely vital, and are already in place in other states like Victoria and Queensland. No nurse we spoke to doubted the importance of the ratios, but they also stressed the importance of the official pay demand: a 7% increase. This increase is vitally important in the present economic circumstances – after all, “high cost-of-living” is another way of saying “low wages”.

The 7% demand was itself pushed on the leadership by an inspiring campaign from below, conducted by rank-and-file nurses, who secured majority support for the demand at a majority of branches. The 7% demand may even be inadequate as the inflation crisis deepens, raising the possibility of further pushes for higher rises in the course of the current campaign. Members were not letting the importance of both demands go unnoticed, with members at RPA chanting: “Ratios and 7 percent; dedication won’t pay the rent!” 

Overwork: hard on your body, hard on your spirit

Nurses at the various rallies and picket lines spoke eloquently to bystanders about the difficulties of their work, and how the COVID pandemic has only made things so much worse. In particular, one nurse at a public hospital in Western Sydney spoke about how she was bruised by a particularly severe COVID infection, picked up at work. After being off work for a week, she found herself afflicted by severe, persistent symptoms, including acute physical exhaustion that prevented her from actually working. She was barely able to complete a four-hour light duties shift without collapsing.

Another story told to us relates to the damages of understaffing and under resourcing on the psyche. One nurse spoke of working after her mother passed away, having placed a request for a week’s leave in order to give herself some more time to process her grief. She expected this request to be approved but it was instead knocked back, with her seniors stating that they could find no-one to cover her shifts. Being forced to work through a period of mourning and trauma has serious psychological implications on workers, and is one of many examples of serious burnout that we heard from nurses, midwives, and other hospital staff at each rally.

Though this example is particularly severe, most nurses have stories like this. Managers do not even need to be particularly severe with their employees. Nurses don’t go to work simply in order to get paid, they feel the burden of the need to care for their patients and make their own choices accordingly. In this way, the system enforces its inhumanity by leaning on the humanity of the nurses themselves, coercing them with guilt. This makes the brutality of the state government’s intransigence even more striking. 

When speaking to nurses on strike, it was apparent how pivotal the concept of “moral injury” was. The overwork did not just harm their bodies, but it traumatised them and burned them out too. There were times when nurses were simply unable to provide necessary care because of a lack of resources and a lack of nurses. After impactful events, like the death of a patient, these nurses were unable to take time away to talk through what happened with coworkers, simply because they needed to be back bedside as soon as possible. Is it any wonder then that so many nurses are leaving the public system, not just to go to the private sector, but to leave nursing altogether?

The future is in the fight

It’s certain that the nurses will continue to strike further, and that they will need all the support they can get from fellow workers in other industries. While the NSWNMA sees hope in the election of a Labor government, it’s practically certain that this hope will give way to disappointment. Labor has committed itself to absolutely none of the nurses’ demands, and the Labor leader Chris Minns trumpets his willingness to oppose the unions on right-wing radio.

The hope, instead, lies in the ability of other working-class people to mobilise together. The fact that other public sector workers like rail staff, bus drivers, teachers and others have been taking action presents an incredible opportunity. Joint, coordinated action between public sector workers would bring the state government to their knees faster than the individual strikes ever would, even though this joint action would undoubtedly be against the law.

When workers join together in this way, they don’t just further their ability to secure pay improvements and better conditions – they start the process of changing the system altogether. Capitalism is an inhuman system: endless investment in weapons, fossil fuels and the production of useless crap, but only scraps given to public health. Productivity is prioritised over humanity; even nurses are now subject to modern managerial techniques. They’re tracked with KPIs and their acts of care are monitored and collated into dollar-sign values by administrators. The only way all of this can be changed is through collective action, and this strike is only the beginning. 

We strongly encourage all members of public sector unions to sign the petition below calling for a joint public sector strike. Sign, spread the petition within your unions, and fight from below for a united strike campaign in the coming months. The opportunity for real change is now, and only a mass, coordinated, fighting union movement can win it. https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-the-call-for-a-nsw-public-sector-wide-strike