The discontent in the nursing profession was made clear to the Minister for Health yesterday at the annual SIPTU nurses' conference. Mr Cowen faced delegates who spelt out their demands on pay, allowances and other stated shortcomings in their profession.
He told delegates it was no secret that there were "substantial differences" between both sides. However, as these were a matter for consideration by the Labour Court, there was little to be gained from further public comment at this stage.
He hoped that the Labour Court hearings on Thursday would pave the way for a satisfactory resolution of the issues. When subsequently questioned by delegates, Mr Cowen replied: "This is not a negotiating session."
The delegates also voiced concern about study leave, the apparent short-changing of students nurses in the Western Health Board area of their grants, overtime and temporary nurses.
At the close of the session, SIPTU's national nursing officer, Mr Oliver McDonagh, said he wanted to remind Mr Cowen that nurses were "very serious" and the Minister would see how firm they were prepared to be if their career-development issues were not sorted along with their pay entitlements.
Meanwhile a leading SIPTU official told the conference that nurses were "on the verge of war".
As delegates earlier discussed the importance of partnership in the health services, Mr Brendan Hayes, the SIPTU regional secretary, said it might seem strange to be discussing partnership at a time when nurses were planning industrial action.
However, peace talks were often held during a war and partnership had to be explored to try and avoid such a situation developing in the long term, avoiding the inaction which had caused the immediate problems.
"It is important that we discuss the peace even when we are on the verge of war. We will have to have peace after. We don't want a continuous state of war," he said.
Summing up the mood of delegates who appeared bent on taking strike action, he said it would be remarkable if "peace was embraced before war was completed".
Mr Hayes said the traditional mechanisms used by management and trade unions had caused the current problems. "Partnership is an invitation to sit at the table and discuss the menu before we eat the dinner. In the past we did not have an option about what was put up to us."
If the proposed new partnership approach was simply a way of management to move its own agenda, it would not work, he said.
Mr Vincent Steadman, a consultant from the Irish Productivity Centre, said there was an exceptionally low level of trust from nurses towards management.
A partnership approach, he said, was based on trust, openness and transparency, but this would not happen overnight. "Morale seems to be down around their feet. All these people [nurses] seem to be doing is waiting for the day when they retire so they can run away from it. I hope that will change and a partnership approach is a way of doing that."