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Giving dialogue a chance in life is really important in the context of worker unions about worker welfare.
However.
Workers being *forced* to strike about 4-month salary delays and lack of baseline health cover in a pandemic (due to heightened risk faced) is employer cruelty.
However.
Workers being *forced* to strike about 4-month salary delays and lack of baseline health cover in a pandemic (due to heightened risk faced) is employer cruelty.
Re. alleviated risk.
All essential workers, and every single human without the option to stay-in-place for ANY reason, qualifies as facing alleviated risk during this COVID-19 pandemic.
We have already established what risk is/means, for contracting and spreading this disease.
All essential workers, and every single human without the option to stay-in-place for ANY reason, qualifies as facing alleviated risk during this COVID-19 pandemic.
We have already established what risk is/means, for contracting and spreading this disease.
We're already in a grey zone re. ethics, because the world's economy with all its current dystopias needs a critical mass of people to risk their health in order for resources to continue to flow.
This of course has way higher stakes for more marginalised folk.
This of course has way higher stakes for more marginalised folk.
We've already established that for a state to do bare minimum at times like these, it needs a real public health plan for those facing alleviated risk.
Because formative Kenyan dystopias date back to pre-COVID times, that is majority of the population.
And here we are.
Because formative Kenyan dystopias date back to pre-COVID times, that is majority of the population.
And here we are.
A particular Kenyan dystopia we've established is that people have to go strike to to be paid their salaries. Salaries delaying are an unquestioned reality for many public servants.
Elected official salaries NEVER delay though, and they are paid by the same mechanisms.
Indeed.
Elected official salaries NEVER delay though, and they are paid by the same mechanisms.
Indeed.
Why are people calling for "talks"?
This thing won't be solved with words.
It will be solved with bank transfers and a proper insurance policy for not just doctors, but for all health workers.
It is not just health workers who need covers: it is ALL essential workers.
This thing won't be solved with words.
It will be solved with bank transfers and a proper insurance policy for not just doctors, but for all health workers.
It is not just health workers who need covers: it is ALL essential workers.
It is not just essential worker lives that need saving, because essential workers are not the only ones facing alleviated risk.
Alleviated risk was already Kenyans losing jobs, everyone far from a hospital, etc.
Kenya was *already* at alleviated risk pre-COVID.
Alleviated risk was already Kenyans losing jobs, everyone far from a hospital, etc.
Kenya was *already* at alleviated risk pre-COVID.
We have NEVER had a time when clinical workers, nurses AND doctors were striking OR on the verge of strikes all at the same time, AND during a pandemic.
Let me tell you, we will not recover from this deep breach of trust for a long time.
Let me tell you, we will not recover from this deep breach of trust for a long time.
I left clinical practice 7 years ago last week.
I keep thinking what advice I would give a young nurse or doctor graduating into this hellfire of neglect, where they want you to go above and beyond without even paying you a salary on time.
Things a "calling" cannot account for.
I keep thinking what advice I would give a young nurse or doctor graduating into this hellfire of neglect, where they want you to go above and beyond without even paying you a salary on time.
Things a "calling" cannot account for.
This entire sector is at tipping point globally. It's been precarious in Kenya for longer. The market values health human resources least in both private and public sectors.
Folk will now either
- go where health care work is prized
- stop training in health care
Wait and see.
Folk will now either
- go where health care work is prized
- stop training in health care
Wait and see.
TL;DR
- no dialogue is needed for things a bank transfer and system reforms can solve
- 'dialogue' about non-debatable facts is insulting and cruel
- All Kenyans face alleviated risk re. COVID. Our fragile systems exposed us a long time ago
- health is cracking open.
/Fin
- no dialogue is needed for things a bank transfer and system reforms can solve
- 'dialogue' about non-debatable facts is insulting and cruel
- All Kenyans face alleviated risk re. COVID. Our fragile systems exposed us a long time ago
- health is cracking open.
/Fin
UPDATE: When your employer refuses to pay salaries and refuses to account for extra risk faced during a pandemic in the line of duty?
*It's called a strike*.
The employer of doctors went on strike first.
Yet doctors are being asked to "understand" death.
Math is not mathing.
*It's called a strike*.
The employer of doctors went on strike first.
Yet doctors are being asked to "understand" death.
Math is not mathing.
The conversation about labour costs in Kenya is BIGGER than doctors BY FAR. It is bigger than healthcare.
This thing where 3 bob is paid to people who deal with 10000 bob of relative exposure in the name of market costs has all the demons of colonial logic, and its time is UP.
This thing where 3 bob is paid to people who deal with 10000 bob of relative exposure in the name of market costs has all the demons of colonial logic, and its time is UP.
The reason labour takes on full cost is because the state is not taking its share re. provision of quality public goods for all. The public has to pay for everything somehow.
Yet those whose COVID and health costs are covered want us to 'understand' that ours are not.
Indeed.
Yet those whose COVID and health costs are covered want us to 'understand' that ours are not.
Indeed.
