They are calling for hiring and salary increases, before a summer that promises to be “very complicated”. Caregivers at the Bordeaux University Hospital, one of the largest in France, are called to an indefinite strike by their unions from Tuesday, June 28.
Citing loosely “frozen index point”, “random bonuses”, “lack of recruitment”, “closing of services and beds”, “rampant outsourcing”, “illegal recall on rest and holidays “, the unions FO, CGT and SUD-Santé are asking for hiring, while the lack of arms has already pushed management to filter access to emergencies from 5 p.m., since the end of May.
To attract new recruits, the unions are calling for an increase in wages “of 300 euros minimum” for nursing, administrative and technical staff.
“This is the first time that an indefinite strike has been organized in the summer. We are at the point of no return, ”explained Alain Es Sebbar, secretary of the CGT at Pellegrin Hospital, one of the three establishments of the CHU.
According to Jacques Ollivier, SUD-Santé delegate for the CHU, this call is addressed to all healthcare personnel, i.e. some 11,000 people, “nurses and nursing assistants, but also 180 other professions, such as laboratory technicians, medical secretaries, radiologists, physiotherapists, social workers, launderers”. With more than 14,000 employees, the CHU is the largest employer in Nouvelle-Aquitaine.
“At this stage, we count five notices out of the 8,222 agents scheduled for [Tuesday] morning,” said the hospital’s communications department on Monday evening. Even on strike, hospital staff are required to provide a minimum service.
According to Pascal Gaubert, FO representative at the CHU, “this strike is rather political and symbolic, to put pressure on management this summer, to see if they keep their promise to hire”.
600 beds closed this summer
To relieve the staff, the management already announced last week that 600 beds would be closed this summer. “We must be able to give leave, three weeks, between June and September, because we want to protect the teams, the professionals who love their work, so that they do not flee the hospital”, explained Stéphanie Fazi-Leblanc, general manager. CHU assistant. But for Alain Es Sebbar, “it’s not new, [the 600 beds] are already closed”.
It is absolutely necessary to hire, “otherwise, it’s a crash”, insists Pascal Gaubert, of FO. “We are missing 200 vacancies at the CHU, especially among nurses and nursing assistants, and we have an absenteeism of 12% on average, with today nearly 250 people on leave. That’s almost 500 fewer agents. »
“Everyone is affected, not just caregivers. Just on pharmacy preparers, five are leaving this summer, ”also alerts Alain Es Sebbar.
According to these union officials, the management has promised the arrival of 250 school leavers from the end of August to October. “But still it is necessary (…) that we manage to keep them and perpetuate them on the posts”, tempers Mr. Gaubert.
