health and medicine
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in hospitals and pharmaceuticals around the world.
Trinidad: Nurses on work-to-rule
Nurses have been told to work to rule at medical institutions from today.
It came yesterday as the Public Services Association criticised what it called the "reckless behaviour" of Health Minister John Rahael following the dismissal of two of the nurses involved in an incident during where baby Justin Paul was burnt at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
Anger at cuts as £500m NHS surplus found
Union leaders today reacted angrily to the news that the NHS has underspent by £500m as a result of aggressive cuts imposed by Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary.
Faced with projected deficits for the second year running, NHS trusts were put under pressure to economise by closing wards, laying off staff and delaying patients' operations until the start of the new financial year. A Guardian analysis of health authority figures has revealed the huge surplus.
Junior doctors strike in Barbados
Junior doctors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) are planning to take industrial action today.
The National Union of Public Workers (NUPW) and the junior doctors decided yesterday that all elective surgery would be stopped today, including those at the polyclinics. However, union president Walter Maloney said last night people with chronic problems would be treated.
Bahamas sick-out may end
For the second day in a row, staff members in the engineering department at the Princess Margaret Hospital called in sick yesterday in protest at a delay in their hazardous pay.
However, all "sick" employees may be reporting for duty as usual today after discussions with management, who assured workers that the hazardous pay was on the way, said sources working in the Maintenance Department.
"They had a meeting with management, [the protest] was only for two days and everyone should be back [Thursday] morning," the source told The Guardian.
Bahamas: Hospital workers stage mass 'sickie'
Nearly 80 percent of the staff of the Princess Margaret Hospital's engineering department called in sick yesterday to protest a delay in their long awaited hazardous pay, said union officials.
Around half a dozen supervisors and staff in the Maintenance and Bio Medical building were forced to carry out the duties of a normally 30-plus member crew when more than 20 workers called in sick on Tuesday, said the hospital's administrator Coralee Adderley.
NHS workers threaten summer strike
A summer of discontent across the NHS in England and Wales was threatened yesterday by Unison, the public service union, in protest at a below-inflation pay increase.
John Carvel, social affairs editor
Tuesday April 24, 2007
From The Guardian
Representatives of the union's 450,000 health workers voted unanimously at their conference in Brighton to ballot for industrial action up to and including strikes.
Congo: Hospital workers strike
Hospital workers in Goma have begun striking after their request for better conditions was rejected.
The workers were asking for a transport service to get them to work. They also asked for medical care to be included in their benefits. Currently only doctors benefit from these services and the workers have called this segregationist.
Ireland: Nurses' rolling strikes continue
Nurses across Ireland are taking strike action to support their claim for a 10% pay rise and a 35 hour week.
The actions, organised by the INO (Irish Nurses organisation) and the PNA (Psychiatric Nurses Organisation) which have a total of over 40000 members, have had two main elements so far. A well-observed work-to rule and a series of one-hour stoppages over the last three weeks in 11 institutions.
1995: The French pensions strikes
A short history of the massive strike movement against welfare reform in France in 1995.
During November and December of 1995 France was gripped by the largest strike movement the country had seen in recent years. After three weeks of strikes workers forced a government climbdown over the issue of changes to pensions of public sector workers.
Hospital cleaners stage walk out
Cleaners and catering staff at a hospital in Neath, Wales, staged a 24-hour strike in protest yesterday at what they say is a decrease in working hours.
Staff at Neath Port Talbot Hospital, contracted by OCS Ltd, say they have been told their hours are to be cut. Officials from trade union Unison said the 140 staff affected are angry and added an independent report recommended hours should in fact be increased. But a spokesperson for OCS denied there had been a cut in working hours.
