National's divide and rule plan for health

The regime's austerity has resulted in a perfect storm of industrial action: primary teachers, secondary teachers, and nurses have all struck this month, and doctors are currently balloting on industrial action. And the latter is enough for Health Minister Simeon Brown to demand arbitration:

Brown said the only way to avoid that strike would be for an independent, binding, arbitration process.

“The rejection of Health New Zealand’s latest offer and the immediate ballot for further strike action has made it clear that the bargaining relationship has broken down. I see little prospect of Health New Zealand and ASMS reaching a resolution on their own,” he said.

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Brown gave the union until the end of the week to decide whether it would accept going to an independent arbitration process.

If it wanted arbitration, he said the union would need to agree not to strike.

But why should they do that? Why surrender in advance?

Brown's unspoken threat here is legislating to ban strikes and force arbitration, as is the case for police. But that has huge political costs, and runs the risks of replacing organised industrial action with disorganised industrial action - with the kicker that there will be no-one to negotiate with to stop it. The fact that Brown is asking, rather than doing that, tells us that he doesn't want to pay those costs and risk those outcomes at present. And he'll be even less likely to want to pay them, and more likely to want to settle, in an election year. So there's nothing to gain by complying in advance - and insofar as any legislation will simply be repealed, and will increase the chances of regime change and a new government more willing to settle in the long-term, then there doesn't seem to be much to lose by rejection National's divide-and-rule plan and saying "fuck you; make me".

If the regime wants a functioning health system, and a functioning education system, and functioning public services, they have a simple solution: pay these workers what they're worth. And introduce safe staffing, so our overworked hospitals don't kill people. Its that simple. And if they want to plead poverty, having given away billions in pointless landlord tax cuts, and wasted hundreds of millions more on no boats, that honestly sounds like a "them" problem. They're the government, they can raise money by taxation or decide to spend it less wastefully if they want. And if they're prefer to have strikes and dysfunctional public services rather than do that, well, that's on them.