Don’t just make up the numbers

Published: 10 August 2009

There’s change happening all around us —a changing global economy and critical industrial and professional issues which are impacting on us now, or will in the future.

At QNU Annual Conference last month nearly 220 delegates put their collective heads together to make sense of this current situation and plan a way forward.

That’s the great thing about the QNU; we have the capacity to think and act collectively, and ultimately the power to influence change.

We know there are some considerable challenges still to face, but also significant opportunities to seize. Through the QNU, I know we can achieve much.

We have this capacity because of our strength in numbers. In fact, as at the end of June this year, over 38,000 midwives and nurses were members of our Union.

As part of our performance monitoring processes, earlier this year we developed a ‘why join the QNU’ survey which we send to every new member.

While the responses aren’t necessarily surprising, they serve as a timely reminder that unions are relevant today for the same reasons we were relevant 20 years ago. In 20 years time I’m sure we’ll be relevant for the same reasons too.

According to QNU members surveyed so far, their top seven reasons for joining are:

1. The Union offers legal and professional support.
2. Protecting my job security is important to me.
3. The Union offers professional indemnity insurance.
4. I believe in unions.
5. There is strength in nurses and midwives acting together in a union.
6. The QNU works with nurses and midwives to improve my wages and conditions.
7. I need professional staff looking out for my interests.

These results tell us that regardless of the economic situation, and whether we’re in prosperous or weaker times, we should never underestimate the importance of unions and acting collectively.

Take for example our national Because We Care aged care campaign, which we launched earlier this year.

Through this campaign we’ve been fighting hard to gain much needed improvements to the aged care industry.

Thanks to our 170,000 strong nurse and midwife membership of the ANF, we’ve been successful in placing our campaign high on the political and public agenda.

We’re also having an impact at the local level too where for the first time in over a decade we’ve had a positive growth in aged care membership of the QNU.

Aged care nurses are looking to our Union and to this campaign for much needed support and strength. For too long these members could not speak out for fear of retribution from their employer.

Together we are giving these members a voice as well as the capacity to call for change in their workplaces and more broadly.

Go to page 12 of the latest tqn to read about how you can get involved in this campaign.

As you can see when you look through the pages of this or any of our journals, active members are the very essence of our Union.

We know our successes are the direct result of members who choose not to simply be part of the number count, but who actively participate in our Union.

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