fied y:

IT BEATS me why anyone who is being as hypocritical as
the nurses are should be held so high in public esteem. One
would think that the hospitals or the government were on

Strike, not the strikers.

This striking thought hit the oid
brain-pan the other night when the
TV news was showing us drivers
honking their support to the nurses
outside Vancouver General. And
some guy who needed medical at-
tention and wasn’t getting it was
saying: ‘‘Whatever it is they want,
give it to them.”’

The same chap probably bitches
no end about his taxes.

Number One informed this old
crock only the other day.

It may be so. But if things are
that good in the supermarket, go
and work there. Such has always
been my philosophy. Also, never
hang around where the job drives
you bonkers.

The hypocrisy is at Olympic
levels. The nurses’ representatives
prattle about ‘‘caring,’’ and how

You make me sick, nurse. What
you really mean is that you are
after that rotten old dirty dollar no
matter who suffers. The
Nightingale girl would chase the lot
of you into the street.’’

The nurses seem to have the
public behind them, all right, and
that comes from what you might
call the Florence Nightingale myth
~~ myth, that is, as far as the pres-
ent generation of nurses is con-
cerned.

The original Florence and all the
other Florences until very recently
thought only of one thing: the pa-
tients. Sure, they also were ‘‘over-
worked and undervalued,"’ az the
present plaint I:as it. But the job
came first. And if they weren’t cut
out for nursing they could take up
sewing — or marry a doctor.

I know. Times have changed.
Everyone has to make a living.
Supermarket employees are paid
more than nurses — or so Son

the strike is really for the benefit
of the patients — which weird
reasoning is based on the theory
that the better the working condi-
tions and the more nurses there
are, the better off the sick will be.

If that were so, millionaires
would have better consciences than
paupers.

You make me sick, nurse. What
you really mean is that you are
after that rotten old dirty dollar no
matter who suffers. The Nightin-
gale girl would chase the lot of you
into the street.

It’s not as if anybody were star-
ving. A $15-an-hour starting wage
wasn't all that bad; and when all
the fringe benefits were included

See us for all
the bargains!!

PATTERNS & SEWING NOTIONS &
Selected Fabrics —

the fully-trained nurse was costing
us $27.43. Or so it said in the
public prints.

Now it'll probably be $37.70.
And ali along, Pat Savage and Co.
have been ranting as if they were
the authors of The Book of
Lamentations. You would think
they were tending the wounded in
the Crimean War for sixpence a

jay.

All they wanted was 33 per cent.

Why not 133 per cent? As it is,
they will get nearly 30 per cent.
Which is damned inflationary.
And next time it'll be more of the
same.

You know where all this comes
from. It comes from spineless gov-
ernments. If they had had any
backbone, no nurse and no gov-
ernment employee would have ever
received the right to strike. Com-
mon sense would have prevailed.

If common sense prevailed now,
Bill Vander Zalm would go back to
square one and eliminate that
right. Instead, he’s looking to the
next election and being popular
with the peasants.

If things were different, the
supermarkets would benefit. In-
stead, we are treated to the sight of
the premier of B.C. telling
reporters it was too soon to in-
tervene. Peace at any price.

1 hope Bill gets a bad earache.
Plus a bad case of the trots.

Then there are the lesser breeds.
Yes, members of the Hospital
Employees Union are thumping
the old tom-toms. They, too, want
a country cottage in return for
washing dishes. (Although there
are some trades.) In the
meantime, the new-style Florences
act like loggers and say they
won't crass the dishwashers’
picket lines. The patients? Never
heard of 'em.

Let’s hope that everyone who
cheers for these people has to pay
another 10 cents a litre on gaso-
line.

Thank you, nurse®

oO Pak Rival, Svea

ial. 26th & Lonsdale, N. Van, 985-9161
38th & WW. Bocleverd, Kerrisdale, 266-

9- ednesday, June 28, 1989 - North Shore News

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