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Selected Events in Trade Union History Victorian Nurses Strike (1985 - 1986)

From
1985
Victoria
To
1986
Functions
Strike

Summary

Victorian nurses strike for fifty days in response to lack of action by the government in securing their award conditions. It is the longest strike by women
in Australia since the nineteenth-century Tailoresses' strike. Threatened with dismissal, criminal charges, the use of the Essential Services Act, and even police action to disrupt picket lines, the nurses remain on strike and achieve "career structure" reforms.

Published resources

Books

  • Fox, Carol, Enough is enough: the 1986 Victorian Nurses' Strike, School of Health Services Management, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 1991, 219 pp. Details

Journal Articles

  • Bessant, Judith, ''Good Women and Good Nurses': Conflicting Identities in the Victorian Nurses Strike, 1985-1986', Labour History, vol. 63, Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Sydney, 1992, pp. 155-173. Details

Ross E. Elford