Winnie Yu Wai-ming - from frontline nurse to logistics staff and the Chairwoman of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance (HAEA)
“I’m really sorry. I am a chairwoman who always cries. I also don’t want to be like this,” said Winnie as tears kept rolling down her face during the interview. Winnie talked about the support from her colleagues and the difficulties facing medical workers. She could not hold back her tears after seeing colleagues draw lots for the “dirty team” work; to be isolated after fulfilling their duties; and even writing their last will and testament as they prepared for the worst. Feeling worried and anxious, she empathized with these colleagues. She also worked as a frontline nurse before, with seven years of experience in intensive care.
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Winnie Yu Wai-ming said, “I am a chairwoman who loves to cry. I have to stand up for medical workers, the worst that can happen is I will be fired.”
On the first day of the strike, Hospital Authority (HA) employees who joined the strike needed to sign in at street counters of seven leading hospitals in the morning. There were long queues at many of the counters. At 11am, Winnie Yu Wai-ming rushed to Queen Mary Hospital alone and led volunteers to chant “Government is incompetent, strike to save Hong Kong”. There were already more than 1,000 people signing in within 2 hours. They also formed teams and went to different hospitals to deliver white ribbons and flyers. Winnie cried, “I sincerely thank all the colleagues who joined the strike. I would also like to wholeheartedly thank all the colleagues who lined up to join the alliance in the cold for 8 hours …”
At the special members meeting held by the HAEA on 1 February, 3,164 union members voted in person. There were 3,123 of them supporting a strike, with only 10 votes of objection. Winnie also cried as she thanked all the board members when the motion of the Strike Plan against Wuhan pneumonia was passed. As the chairwoman of the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance, she must now prepare to challenge the Hospital Authority which she has worked for the past 10 years.
Join the industrial movement
Years before becoming involved in the HAEA, Winnie was a nurse working in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). She transferred to the Health Informatics Division of the Hospital Authority Headquarters two years before. She is now a non-emergency logistics staff at the Hospital Authority and is responsible for processing medical data in order to assist in policy-making. “I saw many bad things happening in the ICU and reported them to senior management, but it was useless. So I thought may be if I work inside the system, then I can see what the problem could be at the management level.”
However, this experience made her even more frustrated. The management team of the HA did not seem responsive to problems that required their attention. Even when Hong Kong is facing such a severe epidemic, the government and the authority are still being stubborn. “We couldn’t understand why. We seemed to be going around in circles at every department meeting. They think the public would trust everything they say and that somehow people won’t discover the truth. But those of us who are working at the frontline know how serious the epidemic is, and how staff is ill-equipped to handle it.”
Winnie described herself as a “Hong Kong pig” before June of last year, as someone who was more concerned about the pleasures of life. She started to care more about the political system in Hong Kong after the pro-democracy movement began. She felt helpless and powerless, which gave her the motivation to join the labour movement. So in December 2019, she got involved in establishing the Hospital Authority Employees Alliance.
The Alliance has already recruited 20,000 members, accounting for about one-fourth of the total number of employees at the HA. 9,000 members signed the strike declaration. In addition to their daily work, the Alliance board members also needed to prepare for the strike. It also includes having to make public appearances; being the target of “blue-ribbons” (pro-establishment supporters) and senior management; and be chastised as “unethical medics”. However, these were all minor annoyances for Winnie, “If standing up for medical workers means I get fired, then so be it.”
On the contrary, it was the lack of support from some of her colleagues that made her want to give up in the beginning. “Many people didn’t understand our ideals and did not want to join the alliance at first. This made me very sad and disappointed. I wondered why we should even bother. Why should I work so hard for this?”
Winnie pointed out that not everyone agrees with the strike even among union members, “I know that some members still find it difficult to agree with striking, but they joined because they understand and want to show their support. They realize that we are all working towards the same objective - getting the government to close the borders.” At the same time, she also received many private messages from colleagues telling her that they could not join the strike due to various reasons, “I am happy they told me, and I understand.”
“I want everyone to understand that the HAEA is not the ultimate authority. Everyone can voice their opinion and have their own position even though they may not want to join the strike. We all do what we can within our ability so that changes can be made.”
The race against time on the road to a strike
Indeed, the alliance has already made some drastic changes. The first stage of strike was almost unprecedented in the history of Hong Kong. From the first confirmed case of Wuhan coronavirus in Hong Kong on 23 January to the first day of the strike, they had only 10 days to prepare. It was a race against time every day. “The epidemic came so quickly and urgently. We didn’t have time to prepare ourselves and all our colleagues. All board members had to learn and plan for the industrial movement from scratch.” Winnie recalled that board members had overnight meetings when they were off-duty, rarely was there time to rest. “We only hope for support from colleagues. With enough people and power, we have to stay united so we can oppose the senior management and will not be suppressed anymore.” If we have enough people and power, and we stay united, then there is a greater chance we can fight against senior management and no longer have to stay oppressed.”
With confirmed cases being added every day, some members were saying it was taking too long to launch the strike. Winnie said that from the morning of 15 January, one week before the first confirmed case was reported, they had already started to plan for the strike as they were paying close attention to epidemic outbreak and anticipated the need for border closure. “However, it is not easy to start any industrial action. The alliance must consider everyone’s safety and minimize risks, and the strike should ideally begin before an outbreak in the community, so there are many factors to be considered.”
She also understood that the strike will inevitably affect the patients. She has publicly apologized to them, “I hope all Hong Kongers can understand the idea of this movement, that it is for the benefit and well-being of patients.” She said that medical workers are going on strike because they feel the government has left them with no choice. Frontline medics often expressed their opinions in more passive ways in the past, such as sit-in demonstrations, signing petitions and rallies. However, they were often suppressed by HA senior management in the end. “The reason they give is that the hospital is not a place for politics and rallies. But our demands this time are not related to politics. We are facing an imminent outbreak in the community. We are concerned about the life and safety of frontline medical workers. If borders are not closed, then the root of the problem still exists.”
Winnie has noticed some confirmed cases that needed to be transferred to the ICU recently and in some cases the source of the virus could not be traced. The possibility of a large-scale epidemic outbreak can be expected in Hong Kong. “If the borders are not closed, we will likely see medical workers fall one after another, as we have seen during the SARS epidemic. We don’t want to see history repeated. We hope the government will act decisively and put our borders on a lockdown before it’s too late for the people of Hong Kong.”
Source: The Stand News, February 3, 2020