Health workers protests continue

The POEDHN health workers’ union, supported by the ADEDY public sector trade union confederation, organised a national demonstration on 22 February with calls for urgent action on health service funding. The union is demanding increased staffing and measures to address the widespread use of precarious contracts across the health service. It is also continuing to campaign for better pay and conditions with many health workers facing low pay, often little more than the minimum wage. This is a long-term legacy of austerity with pay cuts imposed in 2009 and pay frozen since 2015.

Health unions organising in both the public (GÖD and younion) and private (vida and GPA) sectors united with other health organisations in a major nationwide action on 10 November to highlight the state of the health service and the need for urgent action. The unions stress that staffing shortages were already apparent before the pandemic and their impact now is to leave most health and care workers both physically and mentally exhausted. They underline the need for increased staffing, improved and additional training and better employment conditions if a dangerous crisis is to be avoided. On

Firefighters’ unions, including Fp-Cgil-Vvf and Fns-Cisl have called a national demonstration in Rome on 14 September with urgent demands on pay, staffing, equipment and safety. With services stretched to the limit to tackle the increasing number of forest fires, flood and other emergencies, the unions argue that the number of active firefighters needs to be increased from 33000 to 40000 and professional and technical staff from 2000 to 5000. They are also concerned about inadequate and out-of-date equipment which not only hampers their response to emergencies but exposes firefighters to