GEORGE: Can't. Can't. Can't cross the picket line. I can't.
While not averse to medical drama Grey’s Anatomy was one show which passed me by initially. With a variety of lockdowns (simultaneously 'much too short and much too long' in the words of Graham Parker) broadening my horizons, imagine my delight when Break on Through (Season 2 Episode 15) hove into view in all its strike episode glory. Break on Through deals with a number of key issues: industrial action in service roles, how strikes work in the medical sector, and of course my unalloyed admiration for Dr. George O’Malley…
The episode begins with the titular character speaking of lines which we are not meant to cross. We are greeted with a well-attended picket in full voice demanding “Fair Hours. Fair Wages” (N.B. quotations were transcribed by myself or taken from here.) and the following delicious exchange between two doctors:
GEORGE: Can't. Can't. Can't cross the picket line. I can't.
IZZIE: I don't like it either, George, but what choice to we have? Okay? You took an oath to heal. You're a healer.
GEORGE: Dad's a truck driver. Mom's a teacher. The evening news shows me crossing the picket line ... they'll outlive me just to pee on my grave
Izzy gives the centrist line, George that of left, and they are then joined by Christina who gleefully exclaims 'Has there been any blood yet? Heard they brought in scab nurses,' which is as succinct a summation of the view of the right as you'll find.
Given George’s illustrious heritage he is essentially union royalty, aristocracy, high up democratically elected representatives as he is the son of a teamster and a teacher – two occupations with a traditionally active union membership. For George his Trade Unionism is part of his family identity and his sense of self.
Ostensibly this appears to be in conflict with his commitment to be a doctor. Dr. Izzy Stevens sympathises with the strikers yet feels bound to ignore their picket line. “I think the nurses know that we’re on their side.” Yet George O'Malley knows that there is no sola fide route to solidarity - it is not enough to merely say that you are with striking workers. Action is required by those that profess that faith. Hence George's subsequent exchange with one of the striking nurses (who is also his ex - that kind of relationship happens a lot in the show):
GEORGE: Teachers strike of '03 mom walked the line for 48 days. I can't ... just, I can't cross.
OLIVIA: So go home.
GEORGE: I can't go home. You just don't go home. Yeah and get kicked out of the program. Lose my place as a resident. I'm a doctor, no way. Don't... Don't...I'm a union guy
OLIVIA: So that means ...
GEORGE: Give me that sign.
'I’m a union guy.'
Edgar Allen Poe furthered that in Byron's Stanzas to Agusta 'no nobler theme ever engaged the pen of poet'. By the same token George's declaration 'I'm a union guy.' (accompanied by the joining with his union brothers and sisters on the picket line) no nobler sentiment was ever expressed by a character of a medical drama.
I have long thought that in outlook and execution the union movement and the medical profession have a greater degree of commonality than you may first expect. Both vow to do all they can for those in their care, both are dedicated to improving the lives of those they are tasked with caring, & both are vilified by similar sections of the reactionary quarter of the press when it is convenient to do so.
After George has joined the picket line the striking nurses ask George for a series of favours citing a number of vulnerable patients that require special care and attention. ‘They’re our patients too.' George ultimately sneaks in with the blessing of the nurses (as his refusal to cross the picket line was an act of solidarity rather than as a member of the union that has voted to strike). Which results in a terse standoff with one of his fellow (and crucially more senior) doctors who requests his assistance:
GEORGE: (interrupts): I'm not here.
RICHARD: Excuse me?
GEORGE: I'm here but I'm not here.
RICHARD (angry): You won't be anywhere in about thirty seconds if you don't...
GEORGE (interrupts): Sir, all due respect, no offense intended. Ah but I won't cross the picket line.
RICHARD: And yet somehow you're standing in front of me.
GEORGE: Uh, yep well because some of the nurses want me to check on their patients and so I am but then I'm going right back out there to join them.
Richard: You're a doctor!
GEORGE: Yes sir ... but I'm also a union man. ... All due respect, no offense intended.
RICHARD: Fine!
The episode highlights a key issue of industrial action in the healthcare profession and service providers more generally. Strikes which appear to only affect the company and your boss are comparatively straightforward. Industrial action which overtly affects people beyond the employer can be a difficult sell.
The dispute between employer and employee (so the argument goes) should be kept to those parties. Yet in this interconnected world in which we live even manufacturing strikes will have an impact beyond the confines of the workplace in question. What of those firms to which they supply goods? What of those firms from which they receive materials? What of the businesses in the locality which see a dip in sales that hitherto were made from the pay packets of now striking workers? Returning to strikes by those in health ultimately it is far more detrimental to patients both in the present and the future if care is not properly staffed, funded, and remunerated.
It is of course vital that industrial action that takes place within a health setting does so without detriment to the health of those within their care. To my knowledge every union that undertakes such action ensures that this is the case.
While Break on Through is the strike episode the writers have the sense and courtesy to set the stage for the inevitable dispute in previous episodes. This echos the build up to many real life industrial disputes. On a number of occasions references are made to delays related to staffing, nurses raise the issue of being overworked, when a laudable initiative to reduce burn out on doctors (the main focus of the show) is introduced it is observed by one of the staff that the brunt will be borne by the nurses. This warning is briefly considered and then rebuffed by management “The Nurses are overworked and unhappy. Unhappy nurses lead to ... I don’t even want to think about it”.
So, management doesn’t think about it. All too often workplaces don't think about it (and workplaces sans organised unions management doesn’t have to think about it). When employers do deign to think about the welfare of their workers it is in a cursory manner where they play lip service to employee engagement with a round table discussion and the occasional pizza whose primary topping is contempt (cold congealing contempt at that).
It is telling that an episode of a show first released over a decade and a half ago contains union signs which remain profoundly relevant. ‘Overtime Kills’, ‘Overworked. Understaffed. Help Us!’, and of course the ubiquitous ‘Fair Hours, Fair Wages’. As long as we live in this iniquitous economic system the tribulations of workers will remain the same.
Ultimately the strike and the episode are resolved with the cancellation of an order for an expensive (yet seemingly superfluous) 'multi-million dollar surgery robot' and the money being redirected to properly funding nursing staff. While this piece of equipment was slated to 'bring in business' (my feelings on for-profit-healthcare will be discussed in another article but for the moment let's just say I'm an ardent Bevanite so am not a fan per se and leave it that) it is mused whether the Chief of Surgery 'and the robot handle that business without nurses'. Thus the necessity of the nurses is emphasised and brings about a conveniently neat and tidy solution for the end of the episode (in fairness to the writers this is a tack they use for many storylines and not solely those related to belligerent striking workers).
Yet looking at this from a union perspective I want to know what's been put in place for maintaining funding for the nursing posts. They presumably couldn't rely on the cancellation of equipment investment every year. Collapse is averted for a time without any systemic change being put in place.
It is for this reason that the union movement needs its political voice in order to bring about that systemic change in both workplaces and wider society. The one begets the other and may draw mutual strength from both. But then again I would say that. Ultimately like George 'I'm a union guy'.
