Sir, - Nurses have an unanswerable case. Their service is essential but people will no longer apply for vacant posts because pay or conditions are not attractive to new entrants.
Sympathetic industrial action by other workers in support of the nurses would be seen as an exploitation of the position. The Government, seeing the strength of one group used as a lever in a general wage agreement, would be forced to resist firmly.
If other unions would make clear that they accept this dispute is not relevant to general incomes, because of the special need for improving nurses' conditions to a level attracting replacements, the Government could concede without embarrassment.
In short, widening strike action in support of this claim would be unhelpful to the nurses. - Yours, etc., Louis Smith,
The Elms, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.