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LATIN AMERICA |
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Doctors
Stage Strike in Argentina
BUENOS AIRES – Doctors and other employees
at 290 hospitals around Argentine on
Wednesday are staging a strike and
demonstrations to demand pay hikes, better
working conditions and increases in
investments in health care, union officials
announced.
The 24-hour strike, the second to be carried
out in the sector in 2009, is under way in
10 of the country’s 24 provinces, although
in Buenos Aires the work stoppage will last
for two days.
The health care professionals participating
in the pressure tactic will not hold office
consultations or perform scheduled
surgeries, but the regular health care
shifts at hospitals will be carried out as
normal and hospitalized patients will
continue to be monitored, according to the
Fesprosa union, which called the strike.
“We’re halting (our work) for better
salaries, an end to working off the books
and greater investment in health care. It
covers 290 hospitals around the country,
where more than 50,000 doctors and
professionals are joining the measure,”
union chief Jorge Yabkowski said.
He said that the union is demanding “that
the cut of 500 million pesos ($131.5
million) in the national health care budget
for 2010 not be approved,” since that would
mean “a decline of 20 percent in real terms”
in funds allocated to the sector.
The government’s bill “projects a decline of
7.1 percent ... in the national health care
budget, reducing it by 6.1 billion pesos
($1.61 billion) to 5.6 billion pesos ($1.47
billion),” Yabkowski said.
However, the Health Ministry denied in a
communique that the budget projects a
cutback in the area for 2010.
The strike in the health care sector comes
when three teachers unions are also on
strike, leaving 700,000 students in the
Argentine capital without classes. EFE
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