Protest march by Student Nurses in progress
dublin |
miscellaneous |
news report 
Thursday April 15, 2004 14:37
by Office Worker
[1:30pm] - At least 300+ women on the march
I have just witnessed a noisy protest march of about 300+ student nurses heading up Mount Street towards the Dail presumably.
They were carrying varying posters and stuff with one saying: "We are not a Free Kit"
Apparently this and the protest refers to the fact they are owed quite a lot of back money which hasn't been paid.
Anybody got more reports and background on this?
Comments (9 of 9)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9A notice from yesterday about the demo
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=64316
They are UCD nursing students who are protesting about the refusal of the Dept of Health to pay them expences and wages when they are on clinical placement. Nursing students in other colleges have recieved their money.
The protest march started in Ballsbridge (where the UCD School of Nursing and Midwifery is bassed). It went into the city centre and to the Dáil. The 400 students staged a sit-down protest outside the Dail blocking the entrance.
The march then went through town, down molesworth street, through college green to the Department of Health. The march was ver lively and loud. There were chants of "Payments for all! You've Failed us Fianna Fail" and "I'm a Student Nurse... With an Empty Purse!"
Student Nurses are not getting paid for the long hours of Free Labour they provide in the Hospitals. They work upto 10 weeks in an out of term for free. They were demanding Payment, Living Allowance, Travel Allowance, Uniform Allowance etc.
The protest was organised by the UCD Students' Union and the Irish Nurses' Organisation.
Where were the USI officers at yesterday's protest? They are mandated to campaign on the issue. A motion proposed by UCDSU was passed at congress that mandated them to do work on this very issue of payments for Nursing, Physiotherapy and other Health Sciences students.
They are all on the dole A Chara. The Union only now has two officers.
They could have cobbled together a Press Release in support. The INO and UCD SU did and had a few interviews on radio, etc. to highlight the protest.
Even if they only have 2 officers they could still give a hand out by contacting other colleges with Nursing students. This is only a phone call to relevant officers and class reps. There could have been a mobilisation from the Dublin Colleges. They could have even turned up themselves, put out press releases, spoke at demo, etc.
Remember: THEY ARE MANDATED TO DO THIS BY USI CONGRESS!
Think you have to ask if they were contacted by ucdsu or the ino. Ceann Aras of usi does not own a crystal ball!
An email was sent to all students unions and each individual officer of USI was notified through mail, we took the usi banner on the demo because nurses are usi members and it is only fair that we encorage the national union, not their fault some of officer board are incompetent. The banner was collected, held and brought back by students. It would have been nice for some member of officer board to turn up, but students can do things themselves and have proven that are a million times more active than officer board. This year of activism has proven that students are not apathethic and can organise and resist autonomously to USi and even our own union. It is a positive method of organisation and highlights the incompetency of others that are supposed to organise and represent but do not. Despite this it was a great day of action and all we can hope is that the campaign escalates and we can deliver on our demands. No to Free Labour.
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