1986 Strike
The Aftermath
From the perspective of the RANF, the Victorian Government, and to a large extent the media as well, suffered two misconceptions in relation to the strike. The first misconception was that the reason RANF members had been motivated to take industrial action was purely because of insufficient wages. While dissatisfaction with the June award was a major catalyst for the strike, nurses were also motivated to strike because of deeper systemic problems.
The second misconception was that this strike was being driven to a large extent by the militancy of the RANF Secretary, Irene Bolger. While Bolger had risen to Secretary on the basis of her commitment to forging union solidarity and encouraging industrial action, the strike was primarily driven by the resentment felt by rank and file members of the union. The members had attended en masse to vote for the strike in October, and it was the members that had refused the new agreements awarded by the IRC in November and December. As one member, Nicola Jamieson, said at the time:
“Two months ago we decided on a mass resignation. Irene thought it wasn’t a particularly good strategy, but we did it anyway. After we went to her she said she’d support us 100 per cent.” (Hutton)
On 20 December, another editorial in The Age, entitled “The end of a sorry, needless strike”, castigated all parties for their stubbornness and their intractability. As former RANF Industrial Officer John Kotsifas suggests, while it may not have been recognisable at the time, the strike was a crucial moment in the formation of the industrial arm of the RANF:
“I felt at the time that we really had achieved in terms of undertakings what we set out to achieve probably halfway through the campaign, and I became a little disenchanted as to why we were still on strike, but looking back over it 15 years later, it probably wasn’t a bad thing after all, in terms of the coming of age of the RANF and its members. It’s pretty hard to express it in words, but maybe subsequent campaigns wouldn’t have been as successful and maybe the perception of nurses and their relationship with the RANF may not have been the same had it not been for the fact that it was such an extended dispute.” (Colson, 90)
The feeling at the end of the strike was characterised by a weary satisfaction on the part of the nurses. While not wholly satisfactory, the new award did provide for a clear nursing career structure and the hope of retaining nurses within the profession. The strike also ensured that nurses were taken seriously as professionals, and that the RANF was taken seriously as an industrial body. Both symbolically and practically, the nurses' strike was a monumental achievement by Victorian nurses.
The University of Melbourne
Books
- Colson, Ilsa, More than just the money: 100 years of the Victorian Nurses Union, Victoria: Prowling Tiger Press, 2001
Newspaper Articles
- Hutton, Barbara, 'Revolution in our Hospitals', The Age, 12 November 1986: 12