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Zimbabwe state doctors call for new strike
Nelson Banya, Reuters
May 15, 2007

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L15727240.htm

Zimbabwe's junior state doctors called on Tuesday for a strike from June, the second in six months, to press for better wages in a worsening economic crisis which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe's government.

A three-month strike by doctors and nurses at government hospitals which started last December paralysed public medical care and left hospital waiting rooms jammed with patients needing treatment.

The Hospital Doctors Association head, Kudakwashe Nyamutukwa said on Tuesday the union had resolved to embark on another strike after the government failed to review their salaries, which have been eroded by inflation since a pay hike in March.

Inflation -- the highest in the world at more than 2,200 percent -- has become key marker of the economic crisis that has pushed Zimbabwe's unemployment above 80 percent and left many people unable to feed their families.

"Doctors have agreed that they cannot go on under current circumstances, so they have resolved to go on strike again," Nyamutukwa said. "As it is, some are not turning up for work, but come June 1, no one will turn up."

The December strike -- in which the doctors were demanding salary increases of more than 8,000 percent and higher vehicle loans -- ended in March after the government upped their pay by 300 percent and promised more reviews.

Nyamutukwa said doctors now wanted regular salary adjustments as a bulwark against further inflation.

The strike call follows last week's comments by Health Minister David Parirenyatwa that nurses at Zimbabwe's major government hospitals were failing to report for work due to high transport costs.

This had worsened operations at public health centres already hit hard by shortages of basic drugs.

Nyamutukwa said doctors were living in "absolute poverty" and working in difficult conditions.

"A doctor has to survive on less than $1 a day, which means we are in absolute poverty," Nyamutukwa said, adding that the failure by some nurses to turn up for duty made the work of doctors more difficult.

He said a state doctor's basic monthly salary was 252,000 Zimbabwean dollars -- about $1,000 at the official exchange rate but $8 on the black market.

Urban workers have borne the brunt of a severe economic crisis, blamed on Mugabe's policies and have resulted in persistent shortages of foreign currency, fuel and food.

Mugabe denies mismanaging the economy, which he says has been hurt by sanctions imposed by Western countries.

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