First female national secretary of the Health Services Union

Kathy Jackson has been appointed as the first female national secretary of the Health Services Union (HSU), the largest national health union representing all classifications of health workers, with more than 70,000 members nationally.

Ms Jackson replaces Craig Thompson who became the Labor member for Dobell in the Federal election last November.

Ms Jackson says her priorities include achieving greater recognition of health workers, addressing skills shortages by retaining existing employees and attracting new staff and resisting attempts by state governments to use WorkChoices against HSU members.

“I want to make sure our members get a fair voice. For too long people have just talked about doctors and nurses in the health sector, when our members make up a large proportion of the health workforce,” Ms Jackson said. “Doing the right thing by the workforce is necessary to achieve better outcomes for patients.”

Ms Jackson has been secretary of the Health Services Union, Health Professionals’ Branch in Victoria since 1997, during which membership has grown by over 100%, to around 4,600 members.

Ms Jackson is also active in the ALP’s right faction, is vice president of the ACTU Executive and a director on the board of HESTA.