Polish Nurse
Poland's Government Sends Riot Police Against Demonstrating Polish Nurses
Warsaw, Poland, 22 June 2007 The Polish Government's use of riot police against striking nurse demonstrating in front Poland's Prime Minister's Chancellery has aroused emotions of many people in Poland and exacerbated the situation to where the nurses are now being joined by miners.
The Polish Government used to riot police to disperse some striking nurses from where they had camped in tents overnight. Fully clad in riot gear and wielding batons, the police physically removed nurses from their location in front of the Prime Minister's Chancellery.
Although a police spokesman said minimum force was used to clear the illegal protest, Izabella Szczepaniak, President of the Association of Nurses and Midwives said, "They treated us like hooligans in a stadium. They pressed us against the barriers so hard we could hardly breathe ... police should not treat health workers like criminals."
According to protest leaders, several nurses were roughed up.
The nurses demonstration was in process of winding up and the nurses were to leave Warsaw that day. But the use of riot police against the nurses was considered outrageous and brought sympathy from many quarters.
Opposition Political party leader Donald Tusk said. "Sending police at nurses is not the way to solve this conflict," and continued to compare it to the way armed riot police assaulted protestors during the days of communism.
Pawel Trzcisski, spokesman for the Ministry of Health denied that the nurses were subjected to violence. He said, "There was no violence, there was no overusing of the force. the police just tried to clear the street, it was one of the main streets in Warsaw so it would have horrible impact on traffic in the city. And the situation now is that negotiations between the government and nurses are still going on in the chancellery of the prime minister. Hopefully they will reach an agreement. We are open to further negotiations and we are just against media speculation concerning the violence and putting more pressure on the situation."
Jolanta Kwasniewska, wife of the former President of Poland, Alexander Kwasniewski, visited the nurses to express her support. She was criticised by a government spokeswoman who said that for ten years under Kwasniewski's rule nothing happened to help the nurses so why was she there now.
And Poland's miners stepped in to help. Miners are coming by the bus loads to Warsaw to demonstrate alongside the nurses.
On the surface the strikes by the doctors and nurses is about pay. The streets of Warsaw were flooded with thousands of doctors and nurses carrying signs that said, "Protest of white slaves" and "We want a decent wage".
Doctors earn about 350 euro a month and nurses earn a lot less. Many cleaning ladies earn much more than the nurses.
But Dr Zbigniew Halat of the Consumer Health Protection Association, reflects deeper problems in the health system.
According to him, "I would rather say that this is a call for improving the post-communist system where only in Poland and Russia doctors and nurses were forced into slavery work not being paid enough according to their responsibility, knowledge and ethics."
The Prime Minister says that he will not deviate from "economic realities" and that means that there is no money to pay the nurses more.
Polls show that nearly 70 percent of the people side with the doctors and nurses.
See latest information at Poland's Prime Minister Sets Up Conditions For Class Warfare To Pay Polish Nurses
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