The nursing staff unions SNTS and SYNAPA at Kamenge University Medical Center (CHUK) were to begin a strike this October 17, 2018. The hospital administration prevents this strike by means of police and threats.
Police patrolling inside CHUK
At 9 a.m. this Wednesday, small groups of nurses could be seen inside the hospital. There were also groups of police agents; some of them patrolling even inside different services. The nurses suddenly scattered when police agents arrested one of them accusing him of jeopardizing security in the hospital.
At 10:30, groups of nurses could not be seen any longer. One could think the situation was quite normal until they noticed police agents patrolling inside the hospital.
Alice Nduwimana, SNTS representative at CHUK says to be disappointed by the administration’s behavior. “Since 5 a.m., there were police agents inside the hospital to prevent us from staging a strike. Why do they prevent us from demanding our rights?” she wonders.
Mrs. Nduwimana says the strike was organized in accordance with the law and patients’ needs were taken into consideration. “We had lists of workers who would keep on taking care of hospitalized patients and emergency cases .Some others were also ready to help if need be”.
Blaise Nzambimana, SYNAPA representative at Kamenge University Medical Center, says their pleas are just understandable and easy to resolve and denounces the lack of will from the management of the hospital. “These claims have been discussed since 2014. We held a dialogue with different authorities until we signed a memorandum of understanding last year together with the administration thanks to the facilitation of SYNAPA and SNTS at the national level,” he says adding that all they want is that the management of the hospital implements what was agreed upon in the memorandum.
Mr. Nzambimana calls on the CHUK administration to listen to their pleas and find a lasting and peaceful solution instead of using threat and force.
Pontien Ndabashinze, Director of CHUK, says it is not the appropriate time to go on strike. “They will not be able to get in 2018 what they have not got since 1985.The government is currently struggling to find money to pay civil servants. Instead of going on strike, they should work and earn more money and it is another way of getting the money they are claiming”.
Mr, Ndabashinze also says the staff member that will be found absent at their job will be punished. “This kind of behavior has to be discouraged,” he says after he has visited some services to see who was working or not.
The claims of these nursing staff unions are among others the yearly bonus for some nurses from 1985 until 2015 and a bonus payment based on the performance which is given by the World Bank. They say that nurses from other hospitals already get this bonus. They also demand that working conditions at this center be improved and denounce the absence of staff representation within the hospital administration for more than a year.
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