Money for nurses

I've been critical of the opposition's approach in the debate over government action to improve nurses' pay. It's worth noting, though, that whatever the merits of their case, what they're doing makes political sense:

Some 55 per cent of the Finns interviewed by market research company Taloustutkimus for Tampere-based daily Aamulehti said nurses deserved a bigger pay rise than other municipal workers, while 35 per cent of the respondents felt they did not.

[...] About two-thirds of the respondents were of the opinion that the nursing unions' wage demands were acceptable.

Many respondents were not impressed by the government's actions in the municipal wage affair, with an overall mark of 2.27 on a scale of one to five.

Those figures don't look too good for the government. One wonders if this issue is behind the recent drop in support for government parties.