The medical direction of the Garrahan Hospital It has been occupied since 12 this Friday by workers gathered in the Association of Professionals and Technicians (APyT)in protest against discounts applied to the salaries of nurses, instrumentalists and kindergarten teachers.
The measure was reported through a statement released by the union organization that represents the protesters, who demand be received by the health center authorities.
According to the text released by the APyT, the protest will continue until “they return what they deducted,” and points against the authorities of the health center, headed by the director, Mariano Pirozzo, and the Board of Directors of the hospital, whom they describe as “enemies of Garrahan and childhoods,” in addition to accusing them of acting as “a political, authoritarian and arrogant interventionist.”
“At this moment, the medical management of the Garrahan Hospital is busy because the directors and two other officials of the Board of Directors resolved brutal salary deductions: $300,000 to $500,000 for exercising the right to strike for workers who cannot make ends meet,” said the delegate of the ATE Hospital Garrahan Internal Board, Alexander Lipcovich.
According to the union representative, the affected personnel include “single mothers who cannot pay the rent, while they (the hospital management) personally use millions of pesos for their income, they appoint contractors as advisors who earn $3.4 million and they starve the staff. The Garrahan crisis is not only far from being resolved, but it is deepening. We demand that the authorities receive us, which they are not doing, and that they reverse these criminal discounts,” Lipcovich concluded.
“The nurses who are caring 24 hours a day for boys and girls with the most complex conditions in the country have suffered discounts of hundreds of thousands of pesos. There is no response, there are no meetings, there is nothing,” lamented the union leader.
As part of the general claim, the APyT maintained that the current Council was designated “by finger” to “hide millionaire own resources that we workers generate to allocate them to a Investment Fund“, and repudiated that “discounts are applied to those who defend the Garrahan Hospital.”
The letter also urged: “They have to leave because every minute that passes and they are in charge of the hospital, the children and the health team, we are worse off.” And “everyone” is called to participate in the takeover of the hospital management, demanding the restitution of the discounted assets and the opening of a channel of dialogue with those responsible for the establishment.
In recent weeks, the workers of the Garrahan Hospital, grouped in the Association of Professionals and Technicians (APyT), continued to carry out protests, including a cacerolazo at the door of the institution in rejection of the president’s decision Javier Milei of not applying the Pediatric Emergency Law “due to lack of funds.”
The call was carried out in a context of a general strike for 24 hours, and in the face of a situation “very serious for democracy” of the country and also “for the children and adolescents of Garrahan and its workers.”
“We cannot naturalize authoritarianism. The President announced that he will not apply the Pediatric Emergency ‘due to lack of funds’ and that is an authoritarian provocation. How long are we going to endure this as a people? “We must put an end to so much cruelty and arrogance,” APyT said in a statement.
Likewise, they expressed that this measure is “in repudiation of the permanent abuse” exercised by the National Government and that it decides in an “autocratic” manner not to apply the laws of Congress “as if it were a monarchy.”
“This measure is to highlight this situation and will be the first step in a fight plan that will not let up. These people are breaking the law four times in Parliament, twice in the Senate, twice in Deputies. They are not complying with it, and it is a law that proposes recomposing salaries,” warned Lipcovich.
Along the same lines, in the run-up to the legislative elections on October 26, the APyT presented a criminal complaint to the members of the Executive Branch and, at the same time, they requested that Congress “activate the political trial” to Milei, to the Minister of Health Mario Lugoneshis peer in Economics, Luis Caputo, and the chief of staff, Guillermo Francos.
From the management of the Garrahan Hospital they told Infobae their concern about the violent situation that exists in the health center.
“The ATE and APyT unions entered the offices of the medical director and the administration to once again alter care in the hospital. At this moment, administrative and hierarchical staff are held hostage by union members“, they stated.
For the hospital authorities, the measure through which discounts were made for days of unemployment “It was legitimate and corresponds to a presenteeism policy that applies to all staff, without exceptions”.
“The problem is political. It is the left once again defending its own interests. The objective is to stop the works and improvements that the Board of Directors is carrying out. The budget is guaranteed, the remuneration bonuses recently applied to increase staff income continue and will continue to be in force,” they clarified.
And they concluded: “The works and acquisitions of equipment and technology are underway and are financed entirely with the hospital’s own resources, generated by savings and efficiency.”
Additionally, through a statement on social networks, the administration stated: “This is a violent and extortionate action, absolutely inadmissible in a public hospital and a national and regional pediatric reference”.
“Garrahan Hospital is an institution at the service of children and their families. It is not a space for militancy or union loot. We are going to continue defending its mission, its prestige, the medical team and, above all, patient care,” the message concludes.
Far from conciliatory tones, the Minister of Health, Mario Lugonesshot at the Garrahan Hospital workers who are demanding discounts on the salaries of those who carried out strikes.
“He who does them, pays for them; he who stops, does not get paid”was the title of the text that the official shared on his social networks.
“We are not going to allow the union caste or violent groups to put their interests above the children again.. For us it is clear: he who stops does not get paid, that is why those who They stopped 9 times in the last month They had discounts on their assets. We want Garrahan to be the reference pediatric hospital in all of Latin America, free of those who used it as a political flag for their own benefit,” Lugones’ presentation begins.
And he concludes: “It is so clear that they use it politically, that They made this measure just the day that the Government increased the hospital budget by $20 billion. Every peso that was wasted before is now invested in your health team, in technology and in works. The hospital has its accounts in order and the resources go where they should go, to those who work and to the patients. The Garrahan belongs to the children and their families, not to those who use it solely to maintain their privileges and engage in politics.”
