Email and letter writing campaign pays off for Baptist Care nurses
Published: 20 October 2011
If we each take a moment to get behind our nursing colleagues we really can help them achieve better wages and conditions. And who knows – we might just need their help in return some day.
It was the simple actions of 500 QNU members that helped Queensland Baptist Care nurses recently prevent their employer from changing their working conditions for the worse.
During negotiations for an enterprise agreement, Baptist Care tried to make changes to nurses’ working conditions such as:
- Including cleaning duties in the job description of a nurse
- Requiring nurses to attend training for up to eight hours without pay
- Removing the nursing career path – which is critical to recognising and valuing the professional skills of nurses.
In response to this attack on nursing care, the QNU launched an email and letter writing campaign.
Nurses, midwives, and other concerned community members emailed and sent letters to the CEO and board of Baptist Care expressing anger and dismay at the proposals.
As a direct result of these messages, Baptist Care backed away from the proposals and offered nurses a more reasonable set of wages and conditions.
The proposed agreement, which includes a 7.5 per cent wage rise over two years, will go to a vote of nurses shortly.
The success of this email and letter writing campaign shows us that if we are willing to spend even a couple of minutes to support our nursing colleagues, we can achieve real results.
So get involved in future email and letter writing campaigns, because one day it may be you that needs the support of your nursing colleagues.
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