After an aggressive interview with the Garrahan Hospital workers, Eduardo Feinmann made a mea culpa live on his A24 television program. The driver stated: “The only thing I have to say to you, who is our everyday audience and whom I deeply appreciate, is perhaps the bad time I put them through. But it is with you, not with these people who were sitting with me, with you.”
“What’s more, I saw myself and I didn’t like it,” the journalist acknowledged and closed: “My chain came off. I apologize to you, to whom I owe every day. To you who is on the other side. I apologize a thousand times for that bad moment.” In the midst of the self-criticism, Feinmann described the union members and delegates as “traffic,” making implicit reference to the guest Norma Lezana, who was interviewed by the host when discussing the adjustments to the Garrahan Hospital.
In that meeting, the hospital leader had a rough exchange with the journalist. “You should go to Feinmann therapy, that way you will be happier,” advised Lezana, secretary of the Garrahan Hospital Workers Association. Feinmann accused the health center leader of being a coup plotter and replied: “I am super happy,” but the delegate finished: “You can’t tell, let them know to your face.” Faced with such a response, the driver nodded: “Well, okay, he tamed me.” This is how the failed report that was developed in the A24 studies about the complaints of the Garrahan Hospital employees ended.
Workers at the Dr. Juan P. Garrahan Children’s Hospital have had an open dispute with the national State since mid-2025 that combined strikes, assemblies, occupations and a public fight over salaries and working conditions. The epicenter of the conflict was the occupation of the Medical Directorate by personnel from unions and professional associations, a pressure measure that became visible on October 31 and which, according to the protagonists, sought to reverse salary discounts applied after days of strike.
The workers’ claim has several legs: requests for real salary recomposition, complaints of sustained loss of purchasing power – especially among residents and technical staff – and rejection of discounts and disciplinary sanctions that the authorities would have applied after the strikes. Union representatives warned that the discounts for adhering to forceful measures reached amounts that some even described as “excessive”, in cases that they reported exceeded hundreds of thousands of pesos for complete teams.
The organizations that led the protests include the Association of Professionals and Technicians (APyT) and the Association of State Workers (ATE), among other internal and support groups. The unions maintain that, in addition to the salary adjustment, there are administrative measures and controls, such as the implementation of biometric presenteeism systems, which are interpreted as attempts to discipline the staff and institutional “emptying.” From the management of the hospital and the government, meanwhile, sectors of the staff were held responsible for disorganizing shifts and services during the force measures.
In this context of escalation, the national government announced at the beginning of November a salary increase for staff. An increase of around 60% in the basic allocation of hospital staff was reported, a measure that the Executive presented as a response to “normalize” the situation and restore part of the assets. For the unions, the announcement came after months of struggle and pressure, but it did not immediately neutralize all the demands. There are still several complaints about the discounts already made, reparations for possible sanctions and guarantees about the sustainability of the financing of the health center.
