After eighteen months of mobilization, are the strikers of the “bik à rézistans” of the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Pointe-à-Pitre about to break camp? Since the government announced, on March 30, its intention to follow the opinion of the High Authority for Health (HAS) advocating the end of the vaccination obligation against Covid-19 for caregivers, victory could now seem certain. close for Guadeloupe hospital agents suspended for non-compliance with the law of August 5, 2021.
However, on the picket line, installed a month after the promulgation of this law establishing compulsory vaccination for health professionals, the atmosphere is not one of triumphalism. Especially since, in its decision rendered on Tuesday April 4, the Administrative Court of Basse-Terre dismissed sixteen agents who had taken legal action following the refusal of the CHU to reinstate them in June 2022. What shower the hopes of the most optimistic, after the opinion of the HAS. Under the fifteen capitals that make up the village of “suspended”, in the outdoor car park of the Pointe-à-Pitre hospital, the routine is still going on: sports and cultural activities are still offered on the “bik” . Thanks to donations collected by the unions, lunch continues to be served free of charge to the dozens of strikers present. Between the bouquets of tropical flowers that adorn the barnums, banners in Creole remind us that the fight for the reintegration of unvaccinated employees is not yet over.
“We are not going to carry out reinstatement in this way, as if we were just outside waiting to be called to run back to our posts. No, no, no: there are a whole series of things that will have to be negotiated before, explains Elière Guiéba, the new secretary general of the Union of Health Workers (UTS), the health branch of the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers (UGTG). In the eyes of the trade unionist, a “essential fight” remains to be carried out “taking into account all that we have undergone” since the introduction of compulsory vaccination. “It is essential, no one will be able to resume work in the state in which we currently find ourselves”argues the affable union official, promoted, in 2022, within this organization with a reputation for intransigence.
Understanding and circumspection of managers
While the conflict rotted in the parking lot of this dilapidated hospital, the number of “suspended” gradually decreased. So, when there were a thousand a year ago, “at our last score of January 16, 2023, there were 252 in health establishments out of 9,807 staff identified”, notes the regional health agency of Guadeloupe. For its part, the “Collective of organizations in struggle”, to which the UGTG and its health branch belong, advances a total of at least 450 employees who should soon be reinstated.
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