Some 2,200 trade unionists demonstrated outside the seat of the Polish government Friday in support of hundreds of nurses who have pitched camp in front of the building in a two-week pay protest.
The demonstrators, including railway workers and miners from Poland's southern Silesian coal belt, brandished banners reading, "We want a decent living, like lawmakers" and "We want to work, not emigrate".Ringed by riot police, the demonstrators mingled with nurses who since a June 19 march have been camping out in all weathers opposite the cabinet office in a high-profile protest.
Poland's state-employed medical workers are notoriously overworked and underpaid, like their counterparts across most of the former communist bloc.
Polish nurses earn the local equivalent of 290-340 euros (390-450 dollars) a month, and their union has been pushing the government to grant a 50-percent wage hike.
"We hope that the next round of negotiations with the authorities, set for Tuesday, will yield a result," Antoni Duda, deputy head of the FZZ union federation, told AFP.
There has been no headway so far in negotiations after several failed rounds of talks.
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Kaczynski's government is also facing a go-slow by hospital doctors, who since May 21 have been refusing to provide all but emergency medical services or carry out administrative duties.
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The average monthly pay packet for Polish hospital doctors is 395 euros a month, not counting overtime.
Union representatives say that even domestic cleaners get a better hourly rate.
Financial problems have driven thousands from Poland's medical profession to take better-paid health service jobs in other EU member states, notably Britain, Ireland and Nordic nations, unions say.
Source-AFP
SRM/N
