Some 500 health professionals, according to the count of the Urban Guard, have blocked this Thursday the Gran Via of Barcelona at its intersection with Balmes Street, summoned by groups of nursing technicians and senior technicians of the Catalan public health in demand of salary improvements .
The cut occurred around 1:00 p.m., within the framework of the strike called for this Thursday and Friday by various entities to demand greater salary proportionality between different health professional groups, among other requests.
The convening organizations are the Federation of Health Technicians and Professionals (FTPS), the Union of Nursing Technicians (SAE) and the State Union of Higher Health Technicians (SIETeSS) in hospitals and primary care centers of the Institut Català de la Salut (ICS).
As explained by the organizers in a statement, the strike responds to the “lack of response to the legitimate labor and economic demands” of the groups of health technicians and nursing technicians, after the sectoral agreement reached by unions and ICS on December 22. November.
The conveners criticize that the ICS “ignored” the demands raised by nursing care technicians and senior health technicians, generating “growing indignation” among these groups. At the protest, many attendees wore their white work coats and held a sit-in in the middle of the road, preventing vehicles from passing through.
In several posters, proclamations have been read about the “essential” work carried out by technical groups to make health services possible, despite having, they say, salaries much lower than other professionals in the sector. Between sounds of whistles and protest proclamations, protesters have shouted “hands up, this is a robbery.”
The strike affects the programming and development of diagnostic tests, as well as radiotherapy treatments, control of patient diets, outpatient consultations, operating rooms and care in hospital wards.
The entities have conditioned the call for the strike to a favorable response from the ICS, although they have stressed that, after meeting with the Treball department on November 16, their prospects “are not optimistic.”
