IWA External Bulletin #11 - ZSP Health Care Workers Strike
in Bielsko-Biala (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
On May 12, workers from a number of hospitals in Poland went on strike to protest the
tragic situation of health care workers. The ZSP Health Care Workers Union also took part
in the strike, as did the Union of Psychiatric and Rehab Workers in the city of
Bielsko-Biala. 30 workers went on strike in the psychiatric hospital, hanging a red and
black flag on the hospital. They are demanding a 400 zloty raise (about 100 euros). Many
of the workers make around 450 euros a month, gross. Some earn a little more, depending on
their profession. Organized labor in the health care services is usually divided into
profession. Therefore the nurses and midwives have their own union and when they protest,
they are only protesting about their condition. Other professions usually do not support
the protests. Our union is the only one not like this. Different workers participated in
the strike: cleaners, orderlies, physical therapists, nurses and even a psychiatrist.
During the day, part of the striking workers went
to the office responsible for overseeing the
hospitals in the city. They were joined by nurses
and midwives from OZZPiP from the Voivodship
Hospital that also went on strike.
The nurses aims are similar: to get decent working
conditions. The ZSP and the OZZPiP handed out
material emphasising some alarming facts about
health care in Poland. For example, in this country,
there are only 5.2 nurses per 1000 people,
whereas the EU average is more than 11, with
some wealthier countries having 15-16 nurses per
1000. Statistics also show that there is an extreme
drop in the number of nurses in Poland under 35
years old. Most nurses are over 45. The reason for
this is two-fold: the salaries are poor, so people do
not want to become nurses and secondly, younger
people go abroad to work, where the salaries are
usually 200-400 percent higher.
The workers would like to escalate their protests
and there is talk of a general strike in the fall.
Some nurses complained of the outright sexism in
their struggle and that they are not taken seriously
because they are women. The ZSP union contains
some men which are nurses, something rather
rare in Poland. They are in the same situation - the
fact is that it is a feminized profession and such
professions are greatly undervalued.
A few comrades from the ZSP went to support the
strike: a member of the Health Care Workers
Union from Krakow and members from Warsaw
and Wroclaw who had taken part in organizing
radical actions together with nurses and other
hospital workers at the beginnings of the 2000s.
The comrades spoke to the workers about the
protests then, how they looked, why they were
successful and supported by many people. They
called on the workers to escalate their protests,
next time taking more direct action and to strike
until they win.
Despite the fact that workers from two hospitals in
the city went on strike, those responsible for
health care did not want to meet, sending out an
underling instead. He basically brushed the
workers off, which met with the appropriate
reaction. The angry workers began to discuss what
can be done so that their situation would be
treated more seriously. After the action, there
were some discussions.
The ZSP and the Union of Psychiatric and Rehab
Workers will be following this up and is pushing
the idea of a general strike in health care, to
include not only nurses
Shortened from English section of zsp.net.pl
https://libcom.org/files/IWA_external_bulletin,_no.11_May_2015.pdf
