St Ita's Hospital:The Government was warned by nurses protesting outside St Ita's Hospital in north Dublin yesterday that it cannot expect nurses' votes in the coming election if it does not address their claims for more money and a shorter working week.
Mary Connelly, a community nurse attached to the facility, said nurses were going to actively campaign against the Government parties in the run up to the election. "We have told the local politicians and the local candidates that if you want our vote, you want to talk to your leader and get this problem solved," she said.
About 200 nurses joined the picket outside the psychiatric hospital which also incorporates St Joseph's services for the intellectually disabled. Both services were hit by one hour work stoppages yesterday by members of the Psychiatric Nurses' Association.
Despite the fact that the industrial action by nurses had entered its 12th day, they were showing no sign of a climbdown. If anything they want to become more militant.
"If they think we are going to fade away or we're going to stop they've another thing coming," Ms Connelly warned.
Another nurse on the picket line Liz Wogan said nurses would be engaged in industrial action for as long as it took to achieve their goals.
"We are prepared to stay in there for the long haul. If it takes months, if it takes a couple of years, we are not giving up this time".
She blames Fianna Fáil. "They've been in a long time. They've done nothing".
Psychiatric nurse John Rogan said he wasn't disillusioned at the fact that the Government showed no sign of giving in to nurses' demands. "One thing the Government haven't said is that we're not entitled to this rise," he said.
But are the nurses not fed up of the industrial action at this stage? "To be honest with ya, people are actually getting a bit angry that we're not going out fully. The grassroot members are sorta saying why are we messing around with these short protests. Why don't we maybe come out and do it properly," he said.
Karen Butler, a clinical nurse specialist with St Joseph's services, returned from maternity leave with her baby to join the picket, she feels so strongly about the need for nurses' pay and conditions to be addressed.
Her colleague Olive Hanley said the biggest problem was that care workers supervised by nurses were earning more than nurses. "How would Mary Harney feel if her tea lady was earning more money than her . . . how would the gardaí feel if the garda reserve was paid more than them?" she asked.
Meanwhile, Brendan Duffy, a clinical nurse specialist in community mental health and a director of elections for Fianna Fáil in the Swords area, said the nurses had a genuine grievance and something had to be done.
He acknowledged the nurses' views on voting for Government parties was a worry for the candidates going forward. But on the basis that the other main parties hadn't said they would offer extra pay to nurses outside of benchmarking either he didn't believe overall the nurses protests would be detrimental to the Government going into the election.