Nurses continue to protest in and outside PM's Office

The nurses have refused to meet PM Kaczyński in the Social Partnership Center Dialog, and their decision is backed by trade unions who demand a meeting in the PM's Office. "We are not going anywhere. The nurses achieved more in five days than we managed to achieve in five weeks," said Krzysztof Bukiel, the head of the doctors' trade unions who is leading a strike in 285 hospitals. Nurses occupying the chancellery announced that they would leave the office after they reached agreement with their colleagues outside, but contacts between both groups remain very difficult. Meanwhile, outside the PM's Office the so-called "White Town" of protesting nurses is now 3,000 strong who live in 110 tents, with more and more participants saying they are ready to go on hunger strike. "A stalemate has been reached and both parties must step back," said former deputy health minister Krzysztof Tronczyński. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 6) M.M.