Closer compromise?

As WBJ went to print it appeared as if the four-week-long nurses' strike could be drawing to an end. Around 40 percent of the National Health Fund's (NFZ) zł.1.2 billion surplus is earmarked for raises in the health sector in Q4 and the Polish Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives (OZZPiP) is demanding that 80 percent of this money be given to nurses. According to the Minister of Health Zbigniew Religa, Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński has agreed to these conditions.

"[The Prime Minister agrees] on the condition that other trade unions taking part in the talks agree. And on the condition that the "white town" [of nurses striking in front of the PM's Chancellery] disappears," Religa said. Talks between the Health Minister and representatives of the nurses have been postponed, giving all sides time to study the proposals.

The chairman of the Doctors' Trade Union of Poland (OZZL), Krzysztof Bukiel, said that his organization was ready to agree to this proposal, on the condition that it got a guarantee that doctors' salaries would also be increased to the demanded levels. The deputy chairman of the Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists, Andrzej Włodarczyk acknowledged that the nurses are "a low paid group," and therefore doctors "are ready to agree on these proposals," but stressed that this distribution of funds should only be valid for the fourth quarter.

Over the course of the protest, several nurses have entered the Chancellery itself, literally occupying some areas, and some even went on hunger strike. Hundreds of their colleagues and supporters have been picketing outside the government building, setting up tents and banners splashed with the name "white town" or "Kaczogród" [Duckburg from the animated series "Duck Tales," a play on words referring to the last name of the PM and the President].

As for PM Kaczyński, he suggested that the striking nurses are being manipulated by other forces for political gains. "There are other (devils) at work here," he said, invoking 19th century Polish poet Kornel Ujejski. He also spoke out against Minister Religa's suggestion that health deductions from salary would have to be increased from 9 percent to 13 percent in order to cover such increases. The current proposal from the Ministry of Finance is said to consider raising funds to finance the health system by taxing the richest Poles.