Healthcare union joins doctors in going on strike in late January

Healthcare workers across Catalonia will go on strike on January 24 and 25. They will be adding their voice to the strike called for by the Metges de Catalunya doctors union on January 25 and 26, meaning that both groups will be downing tools on January 25. 

The reasons for the industrial action are similar, workers are calling for more staff to be hired, better pay, and more investment into their facilities. 

La Intersindical trade union announced the decision in a press conference on Monday morning, calling for all public health workers as well as semi-private to join the action. 

Union leader in the healthcare field, Nèstor Sastre, demanded "less words and more actions" from the department of health, and above all more funding. 

Intersindical is not one of the majority unions in the healthcare field, but it has significant representation among nursing and administrative staff.

The union says that the problems in Catalan healthcare are not exclusive to a single group or a single union. All professionals, whatever their job category, suffer from the same situation, organizers of the strike say, including nurses, care home workers, administrative assistants, midwives, dentists, pediatricians, social workers, drivers, Covid managers, pharmacists, maintenance staff, IT workers, researchers, and also doctors.

"We call on the strike as more action instead of words is needed. We've seen minister after minister promising a lot of things, but with little to show for it really," Nèstor Sastre, healthcare union coordinator, said during a press conference on Monday.

Catalonia's department of health recently signed a deal with employers associations, trade unions UGT, CCOO, and Satse towards the end of last year for collective labor regulation, but La Intersindical criticizes this agreement for "hiding" a real drop in pay due to rising inflation and cost of living. The "paltry increases agreed for the coming years will not even cover this year's CPI increase," according to the union.

However, if negotiations progress in the next few days, the union does not rule out calling off the strike, but they consider such action necessary to stop the "deterioration" of the working conditions of Catalan healthcare and socio-healthcare staff. "We have a completely overwhelmed healthcare system and all the staff are suffering from burnout and exhaustion. Urgent and meaningful measures are needed to save Catalan public healthcare," says the union in a statement.

Demands

The specific proposals La Intersindical want to see imposed are centered around staff numbers, pay, and working conditions.

They want more permanent workers to be hired, offering a structural reduction in workload; more investment in healthcare expenditure per capita; a recovery of purchasing power and the rights prior to the cuts to the healthcare system; full or partial voluntary retirements and incentives at the age of 60; a single, public and 100% free network, stopping and reversing the privatization processes; a return to the 35-hour work week before the cuts, recovery of the Social Action Funds and the 9 days leave for personal matters; a fair admission system and to put an end to the unjustifiable slowness in resolving the selective processes; more security and less aggression in workplaces; and a fair career path for all members of the group.

Metges de Catalunya doctors' union strike

The Metges de Catalunya doctors' union has called a two-day strike in January to demand improvements to the public health system. 

The strike is set to take place on January 25 and 26 unless the union and health authorities are able to reach an agreement beforehand. Metges de Catalunya warns, however, that industrial action could go on for more days if their demands are not met.

The union encourages doctors to take part in "a historic mobilization" against "unsustainable workloads, a lack of medical professionals, and precarious working conditions."

Catalan public health secretary Carmen Cabezas responded to news of the upcoming strike in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio on Monday morning by thanking them for their work and saying that doctors are "very responsible" and would "know what to do."

Metges de Catalunya members were in Parliament on November 17 to present lawmakers with over 50,000 signatures urging them to safeguard the public health system and to warn them of the effects of a continued lack of funding. 

Catalan health minister Manel Balcells said that these were "fair" demands and expressed a willingness to increase wages and negotiate changes to their labor agreement, but his statements have, so far, been unsuccessful in convincing the union to call off industrial action.