St Kitts nurses “being treated like garbage?” threat strike action
Basseterre, St Kitts, – Nurses in St Kitts continue to vent their frustration about their working conditions and are said to be threatening to take industrial action.
In a note sent to Washington, DC-based Nevisian Everton “Obi” Powell and posted on his FaceBook page, the nurses expressed their concerns as follows:
“Obi good morning. Yesterday and again today, health workers, in a state of complete desperation and frustration at their working conditions, pay, and also the dismissive attitude taken by the medical chief of staff and elected and other health officials with regards to the prioritizing of discussions of a very much overdue risk pay and also increase for health workers, especially in light of covid19, decided to take to writing two anonymous posts which were published on a regional website.
The posts highlighted many of the ills being faced by staff members over the years and revealed just a small sample of some of the corruption that has been taking place at JNF and the ministry of health.
In response to these posts, the nurses were called into a meeting tomorrow to further bully them into accepting their slavery or wield threats at their employment.
Obi this flies in the face of the covid19 act which discourages mass gatherings at this time, and it is also a violation of their freedom of speech, even though in this case it was done anonymously.
What kind of place are we living in where people are treating you like garbage and are also actively trying to silence you from even having the ability to cry out about it?
Obi the nurses are fed up of being stifled and will strike if these attempts to bully them are continued and this can cause a tragedy on the health system at such a delicate time. There hasn’t been a nurses’ strike in St Kitts for decades but the time is gearing up. The ministry needs to know that the only way they can come is with the goals of discussion and compromise and not with any goals to bully or silence anyone.”