Honouring Jill as she prepares for retirement

MERAS Co-Leader Jill Ovens announced her retirement at the national MERAS conference in November 2022. As her five-year term comes to an end, she reflects on her journey with Amellia Kapa.

Jill’s extensive union history began at State Coal Mines in Huntly in 1987 when she was Information Officer. The then Labour government was laying off hundreds of miners, and Jill spearheaded a campaign highlighting the plight of State Coal apprentices and State Coal housing tenants.

Jill and her husband were both laid off and found themselves with a 22% mortgage

“It was immediately apparent that Jill was the best candidate for the job. The thing that really stood out was her understanding of the fact that this role required someone to be an advocate for women’s rights. She really grasped the importance of achieving equity for a female workforce and she very quickly joined the dots between the issue of discrimination against women, and what was happening to midwives.” - Alison Eddy and three young children. She got a job as editor of the Waikato Weekender and later with Presbyterian Support Services in the Waikato, where she and her colleagues joined the Community Services Union (CSU). She became the CSU journalist, a role she continued when the CSU joined the Service Workers Union, and Jill continued to do parttime after she joined then Auckland Institute of Technology as a PR lecturer in 1992.

AIT became AUT, and Jill moved into the journalism stream where she became a senior lecturer and Branch Chair of the Association of Staff in Tertiary Education (ASTE). She was elected as ASTE President in 1999, a full-time job, and was subsequently headhunted by the Service and Food Workers’ Union. Representing kitchen staff, cleaners, and orderlies in this role - most of whom were women - gave Jill insight into the unique industrial challenges women faced.

By the time Jill saw the advertisement for the MERAS co-leader role in 2018, she had also gained notoriety in the world of politics, first as Alliance President and Co-Leader –where she first met Caroline Conroy – and later, as a Labour Party Council member. These experiences had armed Jill with even more feminist conviction and she jumped at the chance to apply.

College CE Alison Eddy was part of Jill’s interview panel and remembers the day well.

“It was immediately apparent that Jill was the best candidate for the job. The thing that really stood out was her understanding of the fact that this role required someone to be an advocate for women’s rights. She really grasped the importance of achieving equity for a female workforce and she very quickly joined the dots between the issue of discrimination against women, and what was happening to midwives.”

Over the years, this has held true, as Alison explains. “Jill’s extensive experience in union work and involvement with the Labour party, combined with her many years of experience in negotiations meant she was the obvious choice. It’s become even more apparent since she’s been in the role - seeing the significant gains for MERAS and the tangible results for midwives. She’ll be a huge loss for the union. Alongside Caroline Conroy, Midwifery Co-Leader, they’ve created a very effective leadership model.”

What some may not be privy to, is Jill’s previous connection to birth activism and the personal significance of landing the job. Jill birthed her second and third sons in Kansas in the late 70s, but not at home as she would have liked. At that time, midwifery was unlawful in Kansas and her maternity carer - a female GP - told Jill she couldn’t support her to birth at home, for fear of being reported to the authorities by her medical colleagues and losing access to the hospital as a birthing facility.

Jill got involved in the homebirth movement, going on to be present at friends’ homebirths, attended by Oklahoma-based midwives who crossed the border in to Kansas to support women’s choices. Jill was a La Leche League leader, which she remained involved in for some time after the births of her sons. Her alignment with the midwifery cause, therefore, was a natural one. “I was really thrilled to get the job; it took me back full circle to working with women. The struggle for women is so much greater than for men in an industrial sense, which had been reaffirmed for me many times.”

Five years later, Jill is frank when describing her observations of how the maternity care landscape has changed over her term. “I think the position for midwives has deteriorated significantly, particularly in the last year or so, but at the same time, MERAS has changed dramatically.”

The gains for MERAS have been many, and Jill is proud to have been part of the transformation of the organisation. “I think that my biggest contribution as a co-leader was to turn MERAS into a proper union. The name says it all; Midwifery Employee Representation and Advisory Service. It was seen to be a service, whereas unions have long since moved on to being more focused on organising: activating the membership; growing leadership at all levels; educating members and our leaders to be more actionoriented. We can confidently say MERAS is doing all of that now.”

MERAS is now a force to be reckoned with and taken seriously as a union, she says. “I think we’ve really stepped up. We’re a very powerful voice within the Council of Trade Unions, particularly given our size. We’re a much more powerful voice for midwives now than we’ve ever been in the past. We’ve got over 100 workplace reps, who’ve all been trained within six months of starting.”

Jill has also witnessed a shift in the mindset of members, which puts the power firmly back in midwives’ hands. “Historically, there was an expectation that the union would step in and resolve all issues and solve everybody’s problems for them. But the model we’ve moved to now is more of an empowerment model, which fits much better with midwives and their ethos. They totally get it; they know they’re best placed to find effective solutions to any problems that arise.”

Member feedback also proves midwives were ready and willing to take real action during the rolling strikes, despite limitations. “I know from our members that taking industrial action was very empowering. Even though most of our members who were rostered on at the time couldn’t actually take industrial action because they needed to provide life preserving services, we still managed to get a lot of media attention and our members were more than ready for it.” Looking forward, Jill is adamant further progress can be made with the right approach. “I think it would be good for us to recognise and express the power that we have. I think there is hope that we can make changes, but the only way to do that is by refusing to accept what’s being dished out and taking action to ensure we exercise our power.”

The key, she believes, is to remember the whānau we serve and the part they are more than willing to play. “I think women out there in the community - along with their partners - are hugely supportive. We saw that at St. George’s. There is enormous potential to mobilise the support that’s out there.”

The final word goes to Caroline Conroy, who has worked alongside Jill for the past five years. “It has been great working with Jill since she joined MERAS in 2018. I have admired Jill’s determination to get the best deal possible for MERAS members when we have negotiated Collective Agreements and her tenacity in ensuring progress continues in the Midwifery Pay equity claim. During her time with MERAS Jill has made a significant contribution in bringing recognition to the work that employed midwives do around the country.”

Ngā mihi nunui ki a koe e Jill, kia pai tō haerenga. square

For MERAS Membership merasmembership.co.nz www.meras.midwife.org.nz

WAYNE ROBERTSON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MMPO