The Minister of Health, Mónica García, has sent a new letter to the Medical Strike Committee in which she blames the union organizations for “breaking the principle of good faith and the purpose of dialogue and negotiations” for maintaining the call for strikes, despite the agreement reached with the Medical Profession Forum, which had “with knowledge and participation” of this committee.
García thus responds to the request of the Strike Committee, which demands to negotiate directly with them and not with the Medical Profession Forum, where they are present through the State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM), with the aim of ending the protests and the strike called against the Framework Statute.
The head of Health underlines that the exchange with the trade union organizations that are part of the Committee “is not a recent or isolated process”, recalling that in the last year the Ministry has held working meetings with these unions both in the Negotiation Scope, in which a representative of CESM participates, as well as in more than 25 specific meetings with members of the Committee itself.
In this 12-month period, he/she/it stresses, various pre-agreements have been closed that “at no time” have translated into a reduction of the conflict on the part of the unions integrated into the Strike Committee.
In relation to the agreement sealed with the Medical Profession Forum, announced last March 5, the minister details that “it represented the opportunity to maintain dialogue, avoid the strike and de-escalate the conflict”, by delving into the main demands that explain the discomfort of medical professionals.
Throughout this entire negotiating process, the Strike Committee has been represented and informed through the CESM delegate, who has acted as a “link for the proposals”. “As demonstrated by the document signed by all the unions of the Strike Committee sent to the Ministry by CESM, as well as the Ministry's response to each and every one of the demands,” García indicated.
The minister also highlights that “in that document sent to the Ministry, the absence of any allusion to the creation of a specific Statute only for the medical profession, a demand that has marked previous strike calls”.
Despite the criticism, García insists that the will for dialogue and negotiation on the part of the Ministry of Health "remains in force, as it has been at all times," provided that the commitments already reached are respected, which included the cancellation of the strike and the recognition of the Medical Profession Forum as a "scope for dialogue and negotiation" to address the labor and professional improvements of doctors.