Unión Sindical Obrera Canarias has publicly denounced a practice they consider "extremely worrying" and which constitutes "a new attack on the fundamental right to strike" of healthcare transport workers in the Canary Islands.
According to them, during strike days they are verifying how certain transfers are being classified as "Priority service due to the need for emergency beds", an instruction that even appears in writing and which is subsequently incorporated into the service documentation.
"This way of proceeding causes us enormous concern, as we understand that it cannot become a mechanism to normalize transfers during a strike and minimize the legitimate effect of mobilizations. The need to free up hospital beds responds to structural management problems of the healthcare system and cannot be used to limit a constitutional right such as the right to strike," they assure.
In this regard, they state that "healthcare transport workers have been enduring frozen salaries, lack of professional recognition, insufficient staffing, and a collective agreement that does not reflect the responsibility they assume every day. Instead of addressing these demands, the option is to adopt measures that reduce the visibility and scope of protests."
USO Canarias denounces that public administrations "cannot be accomplices to actions that empty the exercise of the right to strike of its content. Minimum services must respond exclusively to objective criteria for the protection of citizens' health and lives, never to the need to decrease the impact of a labor mobilization."
"We will not accept that internal instructions or administrative classifications are used to deactivate a fully legitimate protest. Therefore, USO Canarias will bring these facts to the attention of the competent bodies and will study all legal and administrative actions that are appropriate if it is confirmed that these actions are violating workers' rights," they continue.
"The defense of decent working conditions cannot become a race of obstacles imposed by those who should guarantee respect for fundamental rights. From USO Canarias we denounce these abuses and will defend, through all necessary means, the right of healthcare transport workers to exercise an effective, legitimate strike free from any type of interference," they conclude.