The unions are calling for a strike by hospital staff on Tuesday, November 8 to protest against the deterioration of working conditions.
Nurses, orderlies and administrative staff of French hospitals are called to demonstrate on Tuesday. The CGT, FO, SUD and CFTC unions are organizing a demonstration in Paris. The procession will leave Montparnasse at 10 am, and will head towards the Ministry of Health.
“The working conditions of employees deteriorate considerably,” Mireille Stivala, secretary general of the health branch of the CGT, told AFP. The unions, supported by hospital practitioners through the inter-union Avenir hospitalier, blame the management for the string of budget cuts for more than ten years, which has repercussions on nursing and administrative staff.
Lack of staff
This cure of austerity imposed to restore a certain budgetary balance of hospitals induces the closure of services or even establishments, a lack of personnel while the activity increases.
The unions intend by this demonstration to sound the alarm bells on the state of staff exhaustion. They specifically call for the suspension of the savings program already initiated by the Ministry of Health, aimed at reducing hospital spending by more than three billion euros by the end of 2017.
“We want to be heard and we want concrete announcements,” sums up Nathalie Depoire, president of the National Nursing Coordination (CNI). We expect a strong mobilization ”. Groups of liberal nurses and students will join the procession.
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