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95% of INMO nurses and midwives have voted to go on strike in a dispute over staff shortages and pay.
The INMO’s Executive Council, made up of elected nurses and midwives from across Ireland, will meet on January 7th and 8th to discuss the result and decide the next steps.
The Executive will determine dates for a 24-hour national strike, which would see INMO members withdraw their labour, providing only emergency and lifesaving care.
This would be only the second time in the INMO’s hundred-year history that its members have taken national strike action. Nurses and midwives last engaged in strike action two decades ago in 1999.
This issue centres on staff shortages caused by low pay, leaving the public health service unable to recruit and retain enough nurses and midwives to safely care for patients.
Nurses and midwives are the lowest-paid graduate professionals in the health service, earning thousands less than similarly qualified health professionals, despite having a longer working week.
Recent government pay proposals did not affect most nurses and midwives and were rejected as insufficient by 94% of INMO members in October.
INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha said: “Ireland’s nurses and midwives are speaking with one clear voice. This vote reflects a deep frustration in our professions, which the government cannot continue to ignore.
“Nurses and midwives simply want to do their jobs and care for patients properly. But low pay has led to staff shortages, compromising safe care.
“Ireland’s current haphazard approach to nurse staffing is costly and bad for patient care, as confirmed by the Minister for Health’s own nursing taskforce.”
Well, the country is doing so well at the moment that the Fine Gael government is taking in as many illegal economic migrants to burden the sate and tax payer as possible, giving them priority over Irish natural born citizens to housing and every other type of social welfare service available and more if necessary. Our government have even signed a UN migration pact to take and encourage more so called irregular migrants without asking the Irish people if they want to participle in this type of new looney left liberal open society experiment?
So, I do not see why the government can not drastically reduce staff shortages by increasing their pay, recruiting graduates in Ireland and abroad, getting the right type of legal and law abiding skilled immigrant nurses and midwives that will pay taxes and become a part of society in a truly beneficial way.
I know patents will suffer in the short term. But, it is the governments decision and not the nurses and midwives fault, as what else can the nurses and midwives do, when push comes to shove!
The Irish people / taxpayers will benefit too in the long term after the necessary disruption to services and we the people will support the nurses and midwives even if the government does not want too.
Time for the nurses and midwives to get out the yellow vests!
Viva la nurses and midwives strike action 🙂