Furious striking nurses have lashed out at boomers after being verbally abused by elderly men driving past their rally in Sydney.
While protesting on the streets of Sydney for better pay on Tuesday, nurses reported being targeted by ‘boomer’ men shouting abuse from their cars.
‘While we were peacefully rallying for fair pay and safe working conditions, an elderly gentleman screamed abuse at us from his car window,’ a concerned nurse said in a video posted to social media.
‘Another older man yelled, “get back to work f**kers” and “you signed up for this”.
‘Why do people hate nurses so much? We literally dedicate our lives to care for others. Who cares for us?’
She had a message for the boomers who shouted at them during the rally.
‘You’re washed up, speeding past a nurse rally, ignoring the fact that we’re fighting to retain the people who’ll be wiping your a$$ in a few years,’ she wrote.
An Aussie nurse has hit back at boomer men who called out their protest
NSW nurses and midwives, who are demanding a 15 per cent pay rise, have declared they will ‘stand up and fight back’ in their intensifying pay dispute
Thousands of nurses and midwives chanted ‘we want 15 per cent’ as they marched from Sydney’s Hyde Park to the state parliament on Tuesday, while mounted police patrolled the streets.
This led to longer emergency department wait times and delays to elective surgeries, while only life-preserving staff remained in place.
Some nurses opted for humour in their protest, with one sign reading: ‘My bra offers more support than Minns.’
However, others took a more personal and crude approach, with one nurse displaying a photo of Premier Chris Minns with a Hitler moustache and a sign that read: ‘I enjoy being f*****, just not by Chris Minns.’
While some resorted to insults, others kept their messages more matter-of-fact, such as one sign that read: ‘Bringing babies into the world but can’t afford to have my own.’
It was the second industrial action taken by the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association in less than three weeks.
The union is pushing for a one-off 15 per cent pay rise and has rejected an offer from the NSW Government for a 10.5 per cent rise over three years.
Many nurses got personal and crude about NSW Premier Chris Minns (pictured)
Some signs used fun messages to get their point across, such as one saying ‘My bras offers more support that Minns’ (pictured)
One sign (pictured) featured doctored photos of Mr Minns and NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey wearing red Donald Trump-style caps saying ‘Make nursing great again’
The government said the state can’t afford that big a pay hike, adding that it could lead to other emergency workers demanding much higher pay too.
But union secretary Shaye Candish said nurses’ wages in NSW were far lower than in other states.
‘Nurses and midwives are paid approximately 18 per cent less than nurses in Queensland, which makes it really difficult to keep nurses here in our state,’ she said.
One of the protesting nurses referred to this with a sign saying: ‘Don’t call the midwife, she’s in Queensland.’
According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the average salary for a registered nurse in Queensland ranges from between $79,058 to $106,144.
The average salary in NSW for the same role ranges from $69,810 to $98,014.
Victoria has the highest paid nurses, with salaries capped at just below $130,000.
Minister for Health Ryan Park told Daily Mail Australia that he was ‘focused on nurses pay, not their placards’.
One nurse had a sign saying they were ‘Praised like heroes, paid like zeroes’ (pictured)
Nurses in other states, such as Queensland and Victoria are paid a lot more than their NSW counterparts
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk