Concord Times (Freetown)
24 September 2008
The federation of health workers union has temporarily suspended the most recent 10-day industrial action on Friday. The strike almost crumbled social service delivery in the Guinean capital Conakry apparently due to late government intervention.
The union's secretary general, Pierrette Tolno told IRIN that though President Lansana Conte agreed to demands made by the union on September 17, the suspension was only temporary while the union looks forward to see whether the government would give the country's more than 7,000 public health employees a bigger share of the 2009 budget. "A signature is one thing and the application of the statute is another," he enthused.
According to the government's Guinean press agency there were 10 deaths at Conakry's Donka hospital during the 10-day strike, which followed an earlier strike in August.
Some of the union's demands include salary increases, school stipends.
The union also claimed that the government owed some 625 workers for the past 18 month.
Tolno told the media that the union was carefully watching government budget talks.
"The real work starts now to respect deadlines." Tolno said the government was expected to back up its promises with money in the 2009 budget, which is to be decided during budget talks scheduled to begin tomorrow September 25.
Health workers reporting back to the country's largest hospital, Ignace Deen Hospital, found mostly empty waiting rooms.
A doctor in the hospital's neurology department, Oumar Sylla said his first day back at work was mostly quiet, "this morning, we donned our white coats again. But as this was the first day following our strike, I only had three consultations during the eight-hour workday. Normally, we have about 20 per day."
An anaesthesiologist at the capital's Donka Hospital, Toure Aminata said she and her colleagues also returned to their jobs.
"We arrived early this morning and reported to our departments. Right now I am preparing a patient for a surgical procedure."
Soriba Bangoura, the parent of one of the patients said the President's signing was long overdue.
"It was time for him to sign the [contested] statute if not we were going to have more deaths in our hospital. Poor patients who were not cared for, who could not go to private clinics because they did not have the money, were forced to go home to die in their homes," said Bangoura
Union-led strikes during early 2007 in Guinea shuttered businesses and claimed more than 100 lives.
Protesters' demands included relief from rising food and fuel prices, better work conditions and the departure of the ailing President Lansana Conte, who has ruled for 24 years since he seized power in a 1984 military takeover.
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