Message from the Assistant General Secretary

Judith Kiejda, Assistant General Secretary

Over the past year, the world has changed with nurses and midwives at the centre of those changes. There is no doubt it has been difficult for everyone but when you work on the front line and the enemy is a virus, the reality is it has the capacity to really rock your world.

The constant re-emerging of the virus, unclear messages from the government and confusion around vaccines and their rollout certainly has had major impacts on the lives of many.

Despite 2020 being the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife and the enormous effort made by all our members across all sectors, the NSW government, despite its platitudes, saw fit to ignore all that effort and show just how much public sector workers were worth in their eyes by attempting to freeze their wages. The NSW Industrial Relations Commission didn’t improve matters by awarding a 0.03% pay rise. How totally insulting.

Yet again, this year the NSW government refuses to see the heath system as it is and not how they wish it to be. In that vein, they have denied all our current claims, including the claim for minimum mandated nurse to patient ratios across the public sector and offered us another insulting pay rise of 2.04%. All this when economists and the Reserve Bank say for our economy to fully recover, we need real wage increases because when people have money to spend, the economy buoys. Not a concept the NSW government wishes to embrace.

Not just because we are exasperated with a government that will not hear us. The community also needs to understand the critical situation of our health system.

Of even more concern is that the government negotiators will not even agree to insert important guidelines – ICU staffing standards or the updated ACORN standards – into the Public Health System Nurses & Midwives’ (State) Award.

Now is when we put our stake in the ground and say: ‘Enough is enough!’. Not just because we are exasperated with a government that will not hear us, but the community also needs to understand the critical situation of our health system, which is putting professional responsibilities on the line.

If members can’t see the importance of taking the government on, then this health system will be the legacy they leave for those nurses and midwives following on. It is our responsibility to ensure we have a safer system in which future nurses and midwives have the resources to care for patients safely.

FAREWELL

This is my very last report. I have given notice of my retirement and consequent resignation to our Council and my last day in office will be 6 August.

I commenced at the Association in April, 1994 as an Organiser and just over 27 years later it’s time to move on to another phase of my life and hand over to a new Assistant Secretary who will bring new ideas, a new vision and enthusiasm to our union.

I have loved every day coming to work to represent nurses and midwives in this state. To be totally honest, there were some days I loved less than others but it was always a privilege and, to this day, I am humbled by the fact that I was entrusted by the membership to operate in this elected role for just shy of 19 years.

Standing for election, I had two main aims. I was determined the Association should have a campaign fund that ensured we had the resources necessary to run big campaigns. I knew times were changing. We could see the decline of union membership broadly and I wanted our union to be in a position to run the best campaigns, without having to spend time working out the money. Enough people came to assist and we were successful. It’s called NursePower.

My other wish was that we have an international presence. From a resolution put to conference by Brian Grant from Liverpool Hospital, we joined Public Services International (PSI) and through PSI, the nurses’ unions got together and formed Global Nurses United (GNU).

My one wish yet to be fulfilled is the introduction of nurse to patient ratios in the public health system. It will happen, however I have to leave the rest of that fight to the next generation of union leadership. I will still assist wherever I can.

To conclude, I wish to thank every member, every branch official, every member leader as well as the staff of the Association who work extremely hard to make the working lives of our members better. My last thank you goes to my co leader: your General Secretary, Brett Holmes. He has always been my coach and mentor as I developed in this role. Brett always afforded me the space to push the edge of the envelope when it comes to campaigning, organising and enforcing industrial instruments. I believe I was always conciliatory in those asks but he says I was stubborn – never gave up – I say determined. In all honesty, it’s called organising. If I didn’t succeed the first time and felt it too important to let go, I would go away, regroup, come back with a different approach and ultimately achieve my aim. There were times I didn’t succeed but not many.

Brett, I want to truly thank you for your generosity and leadership. Quite frankly, I don’t know how I’ll fit into my new world but what I do know is that this union is the biggest in NSW and the NSW branch of Australia’s biggest union. I could not be more proud to say I had the opportunity to contribute to that.

To Brett and the rest of our union: I wish you all the very best in the future and thank you for the truly awesome opportunities this position has afforded me.