“We need natural people, not Excel tables”: an “unlimited” strike at the Ariège valleys hospital center

Since Thursday, November 14, the paramedical staff of the internal medicine department of the Intercommunal Hospital Center of the Ariège Valleys (CHIVA) have started an indefinite strike. In question, working conditions which would be degraded by a lack of staff, particularly at night when the team is only made up of three people (a nurse and two nursing assistants). ). And this, while since 2022, the number of beds in the department has increased from 23 to 32, with patients with complex pathologies or at the end of life.

“We have overtime every day. We are faced with death, distress… We need physical people, not Excel tables,” call out the strikers, determined to continue their action. According to them, the health of patients and staff would be at stake. “Our work is Taylorism, assembly line work. If the staff goes on strike, it is because they are exhausted. […] We need to be able to work safely.”

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“A parody of negotiations”

In a letter addressed to management in January 2023, the union already denounced teams “physically and mentally exhausted in the face of such a workload”. A cry of warning that would have remained unanswered. Supported by the CGT union, this strike movement was initiated after a new disillusionment, “a parody of negotiations” this Tuesday, November 12, in the presence of the director of the establishment Marie Dunyach.

Contacted by telephone, the latter said she was “open to reviewing certain things”. “Proposals will be made to the team soon, probably next week. […] The fact of expanding the teams at night is something that has been being worked on for almost a week already,” she explains, referring to internal recruitment.

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