Nurses in the war on poverty trenches – strikes and all that jazz

Abstract

Nurses have always been workers who are expected to have a higher calling and be “professional”. In the eyes of the employers and the public “being professional” means that nurses will keep going despite noxious working conditions and low wages. Labour negotiations are carried out with the expectation that nurses will keep working, cross the picket lines, endanger their personal and family safety. There is no differentiation between nurses in the eyes of the public. A nurse of any category, from assistant to professional, is a nurse. It doesn’t matter if all the professional nurses went to work and the rest went on strike; nurses are seen to be striking. Conversely, if the striking nurses in alliance with other workers get the remuneration and working conditions they are asking for, those who crossed the picket lines will benefit.