On Wednesday afternoon, about a hundred employees of the Anna Hospital in Geldrop campaigned for a better collective labor agreement. They sat down in the lobby of the hospital and held a short protest march through the center. There was no strike. All the people who participated did so in their spare time. They do not want patients to suffer from their protest action.
That the water is on the lips of the care workers, is evident from the large turnout. They usually still enjoy their work, but they are fed up with the poor pay and working conditions.
One of the campaigners is Linda de Ronde, who has been working as a nurse at Anna for sixteen years. She, like everyone else, wants more pay.
The employers only want to give a five percent wage increase, but the unions demand ten percent. It is not so easy for people in healthcare to take action, because they do not want to let their patients down: “The employers are taking advantage of us in this way,” says Linda.
During the protest march through the center of Geldrop, many passers-by give their thumbs up as a statement of support: “They are very right. They had to work very hard with corona and still do. Let the government come up with extra money,” says an older woman who sees the activists walking by.
Other spectators also think that the healthcare workers are quite right to take action for better wages.
“For the older colleagues, the pace and the workload are much too high.”
But it’s not just about money, says activist Marco. He works as an assistant in the operating rooms: “It is also about the fact that the pace and work pressure are much too high for the older colleagues, so that many of them drop out. As a result, we are even more short of hands. We have to work harder and harder walk, but at a certain point it just doesn’t work anymore.”
Nurse Ad van Overdijk is one of the organizers of the protest. He sees that working in healthcare is becoming increasingly unattractive due to poor pay and working conditions. And that while there is already a major shortage of people who want to work in healthcare. According to Ad, this action is just the beginning. Later this month there will be a real strike for a better collective labor agreement in no less than fifty hospitals. The staff then works Sunday shifts.
