Medical Workers Strike in Poland
international |
worker & community struggles and protests |
news report 
Wednesday May 31, 2006 19:17
by L. Akai - Anarchist Federation (Praga)
Lockouts and Firings Threatened
Various strike actions have been taking place for months and mass action for the last three weeks. Medical workers from over 120 hospitals in Poland are on strike. The government demanded workers be fired and waged a media war against the strikers.
(Shortened version.)
Medical personnel are demanding an immediate 30% pay raise which would increase by 100% next year. They are also demanding that the government raise the amount of GDP spent on health care.
For weeks, the government and certain parts of the media have been heavily criticizing the hospitals and threatening a lockout.
The latest threat came from the Minister of the Interior (MSWiA), Ludwik Dorn. The Ministry (MSWiA) has its own hospitals and its hospital in Lodz joined the strike; 80 doctors (from personnel of over 500) went on strike. Obviously NOW it was totally intolerable for them to think that maybe people from the Ministry (or their families) may be denied health care, so Dorn told the director of the hospital to fire the doctors. When the director said no, Dorn threatened to close down the hospital.
The situation with MSWiA is still not clear. This morning (May 31 – one day after the threats), workers from other hospitals went to MSWiA hospital for support.
This follows a very rough campaign against the doctors made by the politicians and media; they said that doctors don’t have a right to strike, the exaggerated reports of abuse (like nurses leaving infants on life-support systems to fend for themselves) and even one newspaper called doctors “terrorists” who “hold the population hostage”.
(For more background on the story and on the situation of the public health care system, the pro-privatization position of the doctors' union (!), and an anarchist position on the problem
see: http://cia.bzzz.net/government_threatens_lockout_of_doc...rings )