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The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) stands in solidarity with all healthcare workers in South Africa and demands that our government must urgently intervene to ensure that they have everything they need, in order to help us defeat the Coronavirus. We support the statement from trade union NEHAWU where they outline the following drastic shortages:

• Inadequate supply of PPE’s and sanitizers
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• The lack of ventilators and quarantine beds
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• The provision of safe and efficient transportation for all the critical workers during the lockdown
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• Provision of catering for critical staff under the present conditions

This is worsened by the fact that the public health system has collapsed. Our public clinics and hospitals are underfunded and drastically under-resourced. Our hospitals lack basic equipment, medicines and suffer severe staff shortages and they struggle to serve the community on a day to day basis. The covid-19 epidemic will definitely worsen this situation. The sentiments raised by NEHAWU are also echoed by the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (YNITU) who have expressed concerns that workers’ have not been taken through the proper training, drills and education in order to adequately fight this disease and they say that having to deal with the virus without proper protective equipment is like ‘going on a suicide mission’.

This is deeply worrying. Healthcare workers are our soldiers on the frontline and they are literally being sent into war without any weapons. It is shocking and unacceptable that to date the concerns raised by workers’ have not been adequately addressed. To make matters worse, the fact that this government has the audacity to threaten to renege on the collective bargaining agreement guaranteeing salary increases for the public sector, and healthcare workers in particular at this critical time is unforgivable! More than any other time the austerity measures that were attacking the wage bill abounded under Finance minister Tito Mboweni and its victims are the very same workers’ who are serving the majority of the working class both employed and unemployed. As NUMSA we reject such austerity measures and we are very clear that an injury to one is an injury to all! Government must move swiftly and take measures to ensure that health care workers have the necessary protective clothing and equipment to keep them safe, so that they can do the work of saving and protecting the lives of each and every citizen of this country. It must also ensure that it honors the collective agreement by paying the increase. It is reckless to engage in debates over this issue when we are at a war with a deadly global pandemic. It is foolish not to pay workers their increases, when the very same workers are the ones you are depending on to keep you alive!

We acknowledge that there are shortages in the supply of some of these items for example masks are in short supply, which is why we say this government must have the courage to compel certain sectors to focus their efforts on producing masks, testing kits, gloves, hazmat suits and ventilators. Where necessary warehouses and buildings must be made available and turned into temporary hospitals and treatment facilities. All private hospitals must be taken over by the state and testing must be free. These are the kinds of measures which are necessary when treating a global deadly pandemic such as Covid-19. NUMSA is calling on government to move swiftly and act in the interest of all South Africans, by increasing expenditure to deal with the collapsing infrastructure of all our public hospitals and to deal with the severe shortages in staffing and medication.

This is the time when radical steps must be taken to protect our most vulnerable and every resource must be used to save human lives. Failure to do so quickly will lead to thousands dying simply because they cannot afford to pay for decent health care.

We demand that government must be decisive in prioritizing lives and stop those vultures who want to profiteer out of private health care system at the expense of the working class and the poor. ‘

Aluta continua!

The struggle continues!

Issued by The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa