27 May 2022
It is a fact of working life you don’t get anything by doing nothing.
And that is why the ANMF (SA Branch) has Work Site Reps making sure the union is an entrenched part of your worksite, to fight for your rights.
“The bottom line is we are stronger together, whatever we do,’’ ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM told a group of WSRs at a recent training session.
“That is why you are part of a union. The union is not me, it is not any one of us. It is all of us together, joining together, in order to make things better.
“Sometimes it takes a little while to get there but I have got to tell you it would be much, much worse in the absence of the union.
“There is still a force for change, there is still a lot of work that goes on, there is still a lot of really good results, whether it is on an individual or a collective basic.’’
The union has won hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay, underpayment or other entitlements for members over the past year.
We convinced the former Marshall Government to last year employ all 1,200 graduating nurses, pumping an extra 600 nurses into the workforce.
We secured key political commitments from the Malinauskas Government such as nurse-patient ratios, a hospital occupancy target of 90% to ease ramping and wait times, and a commitment to restore public ownership of privatised services.
We secured key political commitments from the Albanese Government to fix aged care.
And we secured wage rises for members at a time when wages were frozen interstate.
“I just think how far back we would be without the union,’’ Ms Dabars said. “Things like Enterprise Bargaining in particular, you have got to fight tooth and claw for every single thing, every single time.
“If we were not unionised, if we were not activists, if we were not part of this, I think we would be way, way, way back.
“There is a lot to be proud of, there is a lot that has been achieved.
“But still there is a lot to be done, there is no doubt about that.’’