15th April 2008

It used to be that every second week either it was the Freezing workers or Wharfies who were out on strike (the ferries in school holidays). Nowadays there's hardly a week passes without some section of the Health (read hospitals) sector threatening or going out on strike. Perhaps the union officials that bought the Works and Wharves to their knees have found richer pastures of disgruntled souls to stir up trouble. Human beings by their very nature will never be happy with their lot and it only takes a bit of oratory to build a grievance industry with the larger workplaces great breeding grounds.
A couple of generations ago, people went into the medical profession for altruistic reasons rather than in exchange for bits of paper. I'm sure many would argue this is still the case, but from the outsiders view, far from apparent.

TC