The Nursing Alliance has begun a hard sell of the three Labour Court recommendations. All the unions are producing literature detailing the benefits for nurses, while IMPACT and SIPTU have also established websites to deal with queries from members.
All four unions accept there is considerable resistance from nurses, but say most of it is based on misinformation.
"There is a lot of flak at the strike being called off," Mr David Hughes, director of industrial relations at the Irish Nurses' Organisation, said yesterday, "but it's not as bad as it's being portrayed in the media. People are prepared to listen and have the deal explained to them".
He has already addressed meetings in St Vincent's hospital and the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin, and is travelling to Munster to address meetings there.
The general secretary of the Irish Nurses' Organisation, Mr Liam Doran, and a senior SIPTU negotiator, Mr Paul O'Sullivan, addressed nurses in St James's Hospital on Wednesday night. While the initial mood was angry, Mr O'Sullivan later described it as "constructive".
Mr Hughes says the one thing meetings have shown is that "it would have been ill advised to hold a vote on the picket line". Even with eight days to the ballot, he believes it will take a lot of work to secure a majority in favour.
A SIPTU nursing officer, Mr Oliver McDonagh, says there were "the beginnings of a grudging acceptance" of the Labour Court proposals yesterday. He felt the mood would become more positive as details were explained. Most of the anger expressed so far had been over the decision to call off the strike ahead of the ballot, rather than over the terms themselves.
He said community psychiatric nurses had a serious grievance in not receiving the allowances of £1,500 a year granted to public health nurses, but this was a clear anomaly that could be addressed when the national nursing council was set up.
The general secretary of the Psychiatric Nurses' Association, Mr Des Kavanagh, said that with one exception every member of the union he had spoken to had been "overwhelmed by the success of the negotiations".
"One junior ward sister who rang up complaining that there was nothing in it for her discovered she was going to get £1,500 in allowances from this recommendation and a £3,020 pay rise from the August recommendation as well as the lump sum of £1,250".
IMPACT is providing details of the Labour Court recommendation on its Website, as well as details on how to return strike placards, how to apply for strike pay and details of increases due to individual grades.
The union's national officer for the health services, Mr Kevin Callinan, said he thought members were only gradually becoming aware of the full impact of increases in allowances, pay and career opportunities.
The full text of the Labour Court recommendation is on The Irish Times Website at www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/1999/labcourt, at www.IMPACT.ie and www.SIPTU.ie