A rank-and-file ticket, Time for a Handover, will challenge the NSW Nurses and Midwives Union (NSWNMA) leadership in the elections, which are due during September and October.

Elections take place every four years and apart from a challenge to the Assistant General Secretary position four years ago, there has been no contest for more than a decade. The general secretary position has not been challenged in more than 20 years.

Registered Nurse Viola Morris, a former federal organiser in aged care, told Green Left that many NSWNMA members feel unheard and that it was time for a handover to “the nurses and midwives on the floor”.

She said many members are unhappy with the leadership’s decision to stop industrial action to win better wages and conditions and instead go to the Industrial Relations Commission (IRC).

“The NSWNMA leadership’s decision to stop the protected strike action and run a wage case in the NSW IRC was always unlikely to lead to major improvements to members’ pay and conditions,” Morris said. “No matter how compelling the union’s evidence was, the IRC was going to comply with the state government’s wages policy. That was always........

© Green Left Weekly