Nurses await Police permission For street protest

STRIKING NURSES AT THE LINDEN HOSPITAL COMPLEX (LHC) are still awaiting
police permission to take their protest action to the streets of the bauxite-mining town, Linden,
Head of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) Upper Demerara/Berbice (Region Ten)
Branch, Mr. Maurice Butters confirmed.
Nurses are spearheading industrial action at LHC to help forcibly remove Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) Mr. Rudy Small for explosive salacious comments against healthcare workers of
that government institition.
In a taped interview with www.aroundtheregions.com, Small claimed nurses are escaping from
night duties for romantic escapades with their lovers. By lumping together all the nurses at LHC,
Small’s comments are said to create a crisis for those who are married and others in committed,
monogamous relationships.
Information reaching this media house suggests that some nurses have since been subject to
repeated grilling from their concerned, and now-suspicious, spouses.
Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Health Ministry, Mr. Malcsolm Watkins, removed Small after
the controversy he started escalated, but the next day reversed his decision. This helped
exacerbate tensions between the two sides. Striking employees who limited their protest to the
LHC compound, now want to take their grievances to the streets.
Up to the time of writing, the police had not responded to the nurses’ application for a public
protest against the embattled CEO.

GPSU’s Butters blamed the “deception, arrogance and irresponsibility” for the deepening divide
between the government and LHC staff.  He said the nurses have no intentions of backing down
from their industrial action and calls for Small permanent removal.
“There is a subtle move by certain individuals within the hospital staff and they have been saying
that the actions are illegal…but the nurses remain determined and are still out there,’ Butters
said.
The Ministry of Health has resorted to scare tactics promoting fears that nurses can lose their
jobs for striking. But GPSU will continue to support the workers just struggles, Butters stressed.
“The Ministry of Health is trying to push that it's illegal…all the senior administration staff at the
hospital are actors, and since they are actors, they are somewhat reserved in accepting what the
nurses are doing and are seeking to push their position, '' he explained.
In any industrial dispute, the government goes to its well-tested play book, Butters said.
“It’s a normal thing they do. Whenever there is any industrial action, the first thing that they do
is call for a resumption so that they can talk. But when the pressure goes down, they forget about
it,” Butters recalled.
He continued, “What we are doing is, we are planning with the nurses to go onto the road and we
will get the support as we are seeking permission to march. We don’t know if the police will give
us the permission, but we have sought it and are awaiting their response.”
The is a groundswell of support for nurses from the GPSU, the Regional Democratic
Council (RDC) and many sympathetic residents in Region Ten, Butter said.