NURSES adopted a militant stance in their demand for a better pay deal at a meeting in Limerick last evening.
There were calls for strike action and "off with the velvet gloves" from many of the more than 800 nurses present at the fourth of five planned regional rallies. The leaders of the nursing unions, who represent nurses employed by health boards and voluntary hospitals, pointed out that there had not been a review of pay since 1980.
The union leaders outlined the campaign of action which will be tested by a ballot of nurses next month. This calls for a series of two day work stoppages on a regional basis in all acute hospitals from March 12th to May 1st. On these days, emergency services would be maintained but all routine work would cease.
Mr Noel Dowling, general nursing officer, SIPTU, said that nurses had been neglected for years. "The time has now come to recognise their professional contribution to the health services. The message going out to Minister Noonan in his own constituency at this meeting is to resolve the problem before it develops into a nationwide series of stoppages".
Mr Des Kavanagh, general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses' Association, said there had been "massive changes in the nursing services since the last pay review in 1980." In 1991, the managers promised a nursing pay review, which was to have taken place at the beginning of September 1991.
"Nurses had waited throughout those years . . . in 1994, we eventually commenced restructuring talks. At these talks, management placed a ceiling of 3 per cent on what could be negotiated. It is this arbitrary limit which has led to the difficulties in negotiating a pay deal responsive to the needs of the nursing profession".