A good case can be made for certain industries being banned from taking strike action and the health sector is one of them. Other industries worth such a ban include key transportation hubs such as airports and the like. Whatever your view on the subject, the current strike by New Zealand nurses stands out as based on totally unrealistic expectations. The patients are left to suffer.
My advice: the District Health Boards should now remove their offer from the table, and send the union back to square one.
What is on the table from the DHB's? Reportedly a minimum 12.5% pay increase over 25 months. Bear in mind most employees could expect nothing more than 4 or 5% in that time frame. It's triple what anyone could expect. Generous in other words.
But there is more in play than just money and working conditions. The Labour party is owned by social workers, teachers and nurses. I suspect nurses are flexing their muscles within Labour. The coalition government cannot allow itself to be blackmailed. Stand firm on that last and highest offer. If the government fails to stand firm, they'll look weak and hand National an election victory in 2020. It's pretty simple. Most workers would love to get 12.5% over 25 months, so there's not going to be any sympathy for the union after this. There will be handy holdy of course, but resentment too, which voters will keep to themselves. The Labour/NZ First government cannot afford to buckle and have that resentment turn into a backlash against Labour.
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