The care blockade has started after negotiations between the Care Confederation and the employer’s side have run aground. A total of 63,000 healthcare workers are covered.
At 4 pm on Thursday, a signal horn was blown. Those affected are regionally employed nurses, X-ray nurses, biomedical analysts and midwives. But also employees at the privately owned hospitals Capio Sankt Göran, Danderyd Hospital and Södersjukhuset in Stockholm. Also the ambulance service in Stockholm.
Requires shorter working hours
The healthcare union wants the scheduling to change and for the employees to have more time for recovery and shorter working hours. The union has so far said no to the offer from the employer party Sweden’s Municipalities and Regions (SKR).
Hanna Lundahl works as an intensive care nurse at Skaraborg Hospital in Skövde and is one of all the employees demonstrating on Thursday due to the blockade.
– It’s a shame that we haven’t managed to reach an agreement, but it’s good that the Healthcare Association has chosen to go ahead with this, she says and continues:
– I think we have quite reasonable demands. We have a great many colleagues who work part-time, who cannot bear to work full-time. We work a lot of overtime to get the business going. We also have high sick leave rates. You simply can’t take it.
How often do you work overtime?
– I work in a business that sometimes requires me to work overtime. I would say that I myself work a couple of overtime shifts a month, says Hanna Lundahl.
Now you should go home when you finish, but how will it work in practice do you think?
– We have an organization that depends on overtime. We can’t keep the business open if we don’t work overtime. It’s quite unreasonable if you think about it, she says.
The text is updated.
The healthcare association’s chairman Sineva Ribeiro on site outside Huddinge hospital.
The healthcare association’s chairman Sineva Ribeiro on site outside Huddinge hospital.
Photo: TV4