Protest of Hospital Sanitary Workers in Starachowice

Workers protest against outsourcing of jobs.

Submitted by akai on October 20, 2010

A group of orderlies from a hospital in Starachowice have been protesting for a week over plans to outsource their work to a private firm. About 30 people have been taking part in the protest which has included wearing black shirts to work, blocking the offices of the director of the hospital, taking off work to protest and holding a hunger strike.

The orderlies have gathered about 3000 signatures on a petition supporting them and have demanded the dismisal of the director of the hospital. All the unions functioning in the hospital support the protest and postulates of the workers.

An outside firm is to take on 70 workers who have been hospital employees starting Nov. 1. The new contracts only offer a two-year employment guarantee and the firm will be hiring people also on a temporary basis. The workers would like to stay in permanent employment and warn that the outsourcing of workers means more temps who may not be properly trained, overwork and a probable decline in the quality of services correspondent to the declining work conditions.

On Monday the workers blocked the directors office. They say that they will go on strike if plans to outsource their jobs go ahead.

Currently 20 of the workers are also on hunger strike.

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