#ApplauseIsNotEnough: Health Workers Fightback

Governments led applause after applause for the so-called heroes of the pandemic, but health and care workers remain underpaid.

Government funding of public health and care delivery had suffered severely over decades of neoliberal policies. The barrage of austerity measures and privatization of health services in all regions of the world after the 2007-2009 global economic crisis made a terrible situation worse.

As a result of this, our health and care systems were understaffed, work in the sector became precarious and the workers were grossly underpaid, when the COVID-19 pandemic started. Despite this, they did all that was humanly possible to lead the pandemic response.  

Governments led applause after applause for these heroes of the pandemic. And there seemed to be hope that they would have learned the lesson of putting health of our countries’ population and wellbeing of those who delivered health and care services before the wealth of a few people.

But this has not been the case. Health and care workers remain underpaid. And few countries have bothered to ramp up health employment, leaving the health and care workforce as burned out as they were before the pandemic, or even worse.

A good number of health and care workers have voted with their feet, despite their love for saving lives and helping to make people healthier. Work in the sector is also no longer attractive to many young people who can see what working as a health or care worker entails. Enrollment in medical and health schools have thus dropped.

And this might just be the beginning, if we fold our hands. Financial consolidation is again becoming the norm again, with 134 countries cutting government funding since last year. And by next year, 143 countries would be implementing these austerity measures, which include further cuts in social funding, with a dire impact on health employment and working conditions.

But health and care workers are not folding their hands. As Huma Haq reported a few weeks ago, nurses and other health and care workers have been fighting back throughout the year, and the struggle continues. As we enter the Christmas mood, nurses are on an unprecedented strike in Britain as a wave of strike shakes the country’s National Health Service. Ambulance workers, who are members of UNISON, a PSI affiliate, equally embarked on strike to demand improved after the government failed to heed all appeals of the union for negotiations to bring this about. 

The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and The Dentists’ Union (KMPDU) and Health Services Workers’ Union of the Ghana TUC have equally served strike notices to the governments of their countries which will expire before the end of the year.

The right to health, which has over a billion people have never fully enjoyed, is now under threat for all but a handful of the rich people across the world. In Europe and all other regions, the threat facing healthcare delivery is “a ticking time bomb.”

The struggle of health and care workers is a fifth for us all. It is a struggle to make the governments of our countries to put People Over Profit. The public support that health and care workers have received, despite the unfortunate impact of strikes in the sector, show our communities realize this.

Health and care unions will build and strong active alliances with the communities they serve in the unfolding struggle for the soul of the right to health. Emerging regional federations and councils of our affiliates in the different continents will equally help strengthen our solidarity and international solidarity.

In the coming period, we will build on the mobilizations in 2022 to fight until victory. And our battle-cry, as the European Federation of Public Service Unions put forward to the European health ministers at the beginning of December, will be loud and clear: #ApplauseIsNotEnough. We will fight for Higher Pay, More Staff & No Commercialization of health, until victory.