31 Mar Even a strong hand can be overplayed

There is a reason why NSGEU president Joan Jessome always wants a new public sector bargaining cycle to begin with nurses. The public adores nurses. When Gallop or Angus Reid ask the public to rate the level of respect they hold for various professions, nurses always come out on top. Here’s what Angus Reid found when he asked that question in Canada, the US, and Britain in 2012:

Ninety-six percent. The Gallop Poll got similar results asking the public to rank the honesty and ethics of various professions.

So in pushing nurses to the head of the bargaining queue, Jessome is simply leading with her strong suit. Why not start with the beloved professionals the government least wants to get in a fight with?

Ah, but even a strong hand can be overplayed. A strike—the unilateral withdrawal of the very service that endeared nurses to the public in the first place—is a step too far.

Threaten to postpone little Johnny’s MRI or Grandma’s gall bladder surgery, and suddenly the public remembers those other nurses, the ones who can’t be pried from the nursing station with a  crow bar, and who treat every request for information or assistance as an imposition.

McNeil will pay no political price for refusing to allow work stoppages in the heath care system. Even by our beloved nurses.