Health workers on strike: 'Healthcare is teamwork, improve everyone's wages'

* Photo: SES/Twitter

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Upon the call of the Health and Social Service Laborers' Union (SES), healthcare workers stopped work at hospitals yesterday (December 6).

The healthcare workers were on a one-day strike in various provinces of Turkey, saying, "As healthcare is a teamwork, we want the improvements in payments to be the case for all healthcare workers".

The government added an article to the omnibus bill debated at the Parliament and announced that the salaries of practicing physicians had been increased by 2,500 Turkish Lira (TRY) and those of specialist physicians and dentists had been increased by 5,00 TRY. With this bill passed by the Parliament, several healthcare workers protested on social media and announced that they would stop work in protest.

Workers' march prevented by police

Following the press statement in front of the İstanbul Faculty of Medicine in Çapa, healthcare workers from the SES union wanted to hold a march; however, they were prevented by the police. In response to this, they took the tram to the Provincial Directorate of Health in Çemberlitaş. They met with other SES workers from other districts of İstanbul there.

Stopping work at the Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine Hospital in İstanbul, healthcare workers held a march inside the hospital.

The protest was also supported by Progressive Healthcare Workers' Union (Dev Sağlık-İş) and Healthcare Workers Union (Sağlık-İş) members. SES Workplace Representative Aydın Erol held a speech there.

In his speech, Aydın Erol underlined that "they, as health laborers, from cleaning workers offering healthcare services to caregivers, from technicians to laborants, from nurses to physicians, had filled all gaps of the system by working as part of a team for years."

Noting that "they keep offering quality health services despite all unfavorable situations", he said, "While there were those who were afraid of entering hospitals during the pandemic, we fed patients with our hands. Hospital attendants would not come and they could not touch patients; we offered all types of services to patients, from cleaning to food."

'They indeed did not pay'

"We have lost several friends of ours; we got sick, recovered and kept on giving health services again," underlined Erol, briefly adding:

"What did we get in this process? They said, 'Your help is priceless' and they indeed did not pay the price for it.

"The Health Minister made people applaud at the Parliament, there was applause in balconies; but right afterwards, we all kept on being scolded. We were threatened and subjected to physical violence.

"Though the Sağlık-Sen did not join, we, together with the Türk Sağlık-Sen, decided to stop work for our rights today.

"We want to attract the attention of the government. We say, 'Enough is enough'. In December, we cannot get the salary that we get in January. They say that they introduce a pay rise, but the money in our pockets keeps on getting meager due to price increases." (AÖ/SD)

* Sources: Daily Evrensel and SES Central Office Twitter account