One of the great union leaders

Published: 12 April 2011

After almost 29 years at the QNU – the last 16 as QNU Secretary – Gay Hawksworth retired on Friday 1 April 2011.

It was with great sadness that we said goodbye to Gay after so many years of outstanding leadership.

It is impossible to do justice to Gay’s contribution to the lives and welfare of the nurses and midwives of Queensland, but there are some facts which should be recorded.

Gay was a dedicated unionist long before she became a QNU official.

For many years, Gay was a stalwart workplace activist while working as a Charge Nurse in the Coronary Care Unit of the Royal Brisbane Hospital.

She became a Professional Development Officer at the QNU in 1982.

When Gay started working at the QNU, we had just over 12,000 members, 25 staff and 90 union representatives across the state. The first QNU conference was held in July 1982, and 15 members attended.

As our organisation grew, Gay took over the role of Administration Officer. Here she was instrumental in developing the QNU into the large, effective and financially-sound union we are today.

When Gay took over as QNU Secretary in 1995, our membership was around 24,000.

Under her leadership the QNU has bucked the general trend of declining union membership, to grow in numbers and in strength.

Today we are over 44,000 strong, and the QNU is currently the second largest union in Queensland.

In her 16 year stewardship of the union, Gay has been pivotal in some extraordinary campaigns to advance nursing and midwifery and the rights of workers generally.

There have been too many worthy campaigns to list here, but a few stand out in my mind.

I am so proud of the corflute we took to Fisherman’s Island on the very first day of the MUA dispute in 1998.

"QNU and MUA – Unions here to stay!" it said – and we were.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder in solidarity with sacked MUA members and their families was a very moving experience.

I will never forget our 2002 EB5 campaign in Queensland Health, when we shut 700 beds across the state, and the "Chunder Bucket Express" brought members from towns all along the Queensland coast to our huge protest outside Parliament House.

We should also remember the achievements of the broader campaigns Gay has led.

"Nurses – worth looking after" and "Nurses. For you. For life" have fundamentally changed political, community and media perceptions of nurses and midwives, and the issues that are important to us and why we need to be appropriately valued.

More recently, Gay has ensured the QNU is at the very forefront of the national Because We Care campaign to improve wage differentials, skill-mix, and workloads for members in aged care.

In all her activities, Gay has been a tireless and passionate advocate for fair wages and working conditions for members.

Over the years she has led us through disasters made both by humans (like the appalling Queensland Health pay debacle) and by nature, as well as health care scandals like the Bundaberg Hospital inquiry.

She has been a source of reason and wisdom where little has been shown by others.

Her leadership charted a steady course along which members could campaign to achieve great outcomes – such as increasing the wages of public sector nurses (the wage pace-setter for other sectors) from amongst the lowest in the country to the highest in most categories.

On a personal note, I have learnt so much from Gay over the 20 years that I have worked with her.

I could not have wanted a better mentor and friend, and I will miss her terribly.

Gay Hawksworth has inspired us all to work together to achieve extraordinary things.

The work of our union continues, and there is always more for us to do to advance the interests and values of nurses and midwives.

It is thanks to Gay that today we are in a strong position to do this.

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