Currently, since beginning of summer 2019, a huge movement of strike is hitting the Health care industry in France, and especially the Nursing homes for elderly (EHPAD in French) and the Hospitals’ Emergency unit.
This movement fights for dignity for workers and for hospital patients.
What is new is that this movement emerged from the workers themselves, inspired by the dynamic of the Yellow Vests, outside from the trade-unions (even if unions are running after the movement to try to catch it and canalize it)
To understand what is at stake, we republish below an article we issued 10 years ago exactly … when we supported struggles and strikes of staff from different retirement homes. But at that time those strikes ran only localy, in isolated movements, so it didn’t last enough for a global change.
While the overall situation has not changed from what we described in our article (apart the name of the Ministers that has changed, but policy stays as ever .. ), maybe the generalized awareness of the workers in this industry will lead to a general strike (and not isolated struggles) that would achieve a balance of power sufficient ?