Enough applause: French health workers rally anew for post-coronavirus reforms

After logging three months through a public health crisis, doctors, nurses, and healthcare aides will hit the streets again across France on Tuesday to make sure the government’s recent pledges for hospitals stay close to mind. Health workers are poised once again to put pressure on the French government as it conducts sweeping consultations, dubbed the “Ségur de la santé”, meant to set the stage for systemic healthcare reform.

In Paris, Metz, Montpellier and beyond, more than 220 rallies are slated to go ahead Tuesday during a day of national protest action called by several healthcare worker collectives and unions. The objective is to parlay the public support on show during the worst of the novel coronavirus outbreak into tangible advances for hospital and nursing home employees, the cohort lauded as “heroes in white coats” by French President Emmanuel Macron at the start of the pandemic.

“The government’s soothing speeches, chocolate medals and promises of random and hypothetical bonuses will not suffice. What is needed going forward are real human and budgetary resources for public health,” the CGT union said in a communiqué. In Paris, a demonstration is scheduled for 1pm on Tuesday afternoon in front of the health ministry and is set to bring together multiple union leaders, including the CGT’s Philippe Martinez and Yves Veyrier of Force Ouvrière. A march towards the lower-house National Assembly and the Invalides Monument will follow that rally.

Elsewhere, most protests will take place in front of hospitals and healthcare centres, for which the CFDT union has also filed notice for strike action. Home care workers and retiree associations have also said they would join the protests. Healthcare workers, who have been on the frontline of France’s so-called war on Covid-19, are demanding a hiring scheme and a general salary review on the order of €300 to €400, according to unions. They are calling for “halting all facility, department and bed closures”.

Those healthcare reform talks are supposed to result in concrete proposals by early July. But no figures, including specifics on any salary increases, have been laid on the table so far. The process has been frustrating for unions, they say. “Union organisations cannot work amid constant improvisation and without allocated means,” lamented a number of medical groups, including the France’s Federation of Doctors (FMF), decrying a “sham”.

Source: France24