The action alert says two nurses have been suspended and 81 have been charged with "improper and disgraceful conduct" by the South African Nursing Council (SANC) for the nurses' participation in nation-wide hospital strikes, which swept South Africa last year. The alert says hundreds more may be disciplined by SANC, according to the National Education, Health and Allied Workers (NEHAWU), a COSATU affiliate, in a direct attempt to prevent nurses from organizing. The action alert says the nurses are mostly black, though one white nurse at Johannesburg Hospital has been charged; the accused stand to lose their jobs, seniority and nursing registration; black nurses, who depend on subsidized housing...
The action alert says two nurses have been suspended and 81 have been charged with "improper and disgraceful conduct" by the South African Nursing Council (SANC) for the nurses' participation in nation-wide hospital strikes, which swept South Africa last year. The alert says hundreds more may be disciplined by SANC, according to the National Education, Health and Allied Workers (NEHAWU), a COSATU affiliate, in a direct attempt to prevent nurses from organizing. The action alert says the nurses are mostly black, though one white nurse at Johannesburg Hospital has been charged; the accused stand to lose their jobs, seniority and nursing registration; black nurses, who depend on subsidized housing provided through their jobs, are also threatened with homelessness for themselves and their families. The action alert says in South Africa, public-sector health workers have no established collective bargaining rights; but as working conditions in the overburdened hospitals serving the black population continue to deteriorate, nurses are increasingly joining other health workers in confronting government authorities; at Edendale Hospital, where 1000 nurses walked out in September because they had not received wage increases promised in May, an ANC representative reported that conditions had "deteriorated to such an extent that the services have now become a farce." The action alert says Sixteen of these nurses now face charges. The action alert says the South African Nursing Council, which rules on individual nurse's credentials, and the South African Nursing Association, which acts as a professional association, are internally segregated with separate registrars for each race group; nurses, by Jaw, must pay dues to each organization. The action alert says though pay has been equalized at the top of the scale, the majority of black nurses still earn less than half the wages paid white nurses; NEHAWU believes Sheila Brokenshaw, the union's sole white member, was charged to intimidate other white nurses from joining the union. The action alert says NEHAWU says SANC is violating agreements the union reached with regional health authorities during the strikes that no workers would be victimized; the union is organizing a national protest campaign including lunch-time demonstrations and marches to protest SANC's actions; in mid-February, 200 nurses were arrested for demonstrating at a disciplinary hearing in Pietermaritzburg and a health worker joining a sit-in demonstration at Natalspruit hospital was shot in the foot by a security guard. The action alert says THE NURSES AND NEHAWU ARE APPEALING FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT TO PROTEST SANC'S ACTIONS. The action alert asks people to write to South African Minster of Health Dr. Rina Venter and South African Nursing Council President Wilma Kotze demanding that the nurses be fully reinstated, all disciplinary actions be dropped, and nurses be granted the freedom of association to join the organization which best represents their interests. The action alert asks people to send solidarity messages to Sisa Njikelana, General Secretary, NEHAWU.
