About 400 nurses converged on Cork University Hospital at lunchtime yesterday in the first of a series of planned protests aimed at improving pay and work conditions.
The nurses, many of whom travelled from outside Cork, arrived at the hospital shortly after midday yesterday bearing placards with the words "27 Years Too Long To Wait For A 35-Hour Week."
Members of the Irish Nurses' Organisation (INO) and the Psychiatric Nurses' Association (PNA) are seeking a reduction in the standard working week from 39 to 35 hours and the elimination of an "anomaly" under which qualified nurses and midwives are paid less than unqualified childcare workers who report to them. They are also calling for a 10 per cent pay rise and a further allowance for nurses working in Dublin.
Addressing the rally, INO general secretary Liam Doran warned the Government and the Health Service Executive that nurses were determined to continue their campaign until they achieved the desired result.
"We are going to be telling you shortly that we are going to commence a nationwide work to rule. There will be some who vilify us for that. One thing I guarantee you is that nothing you will do in this campaign will neglect the patient.
"What it will do is cause mayhem for management until they come to the table and give you your proper recognition and reward, and the bigger the mayhem we make the better because they have mistreated you for years."
Nurses at the rally said they had every reason to feel aggrieved, having spent the last 25 years fighting for a 35-hour week and improved work conditions.
Jean O'Connell, a nurse at Cork University Hospital, said morale was high among nurses, who were determined to fight their cause. But she said it was sad that staff had to go out and protest in order for the Government to take notice. Ms O'Connell said nurses were told benchmarking would be the answer to their problems only to be directed to the Labour Court and then back to benchmarking. She said most nurses felt that the health service was falling apart in spite of their best efforts in relation to patient care.
"The health service is crumbling. A lot of patients who are on the general wards now would have been in intensive care 10 years go. We want to give our patients more. Sadly that is not always possible because of time or short staffing. So it is a constant struggle. You feel you are under pressure the whole time."
PNA general secretary Des Kavanagh said the attendance at the rally yesterday was beyond the unions' wildest expectations.
Mr Kavanagh said Taoiseach Bertie Ahern would be a "very foolish man" to try to take on the nurses, adding that the nurses' unions were aware of their pre-election political power.
He warned the Government parties that if they let the nurses down they would be "turfed out" of office.