Over 50,000 health staff in Mozambique walk out on first day of strike – union

MAPUTO,  Mozambique 

More than 50,000 health professionals in Mozambique have joined the strike that began on Monday, the head of the Association of United and Solidarity Health Professionals (APSUSM) told Lusa, noting that talks with the government are underway.

‘Being the first day of the strike, we have almost a 70% adherence rate (…) around 50% of the professionals have joined in,’ said Anselmo Muchave.

According to the official, the strike is having ‘very good take up’ and it is expected that by Wednesday all 65,000 health professionals who are members of APSUSM will join the strike, while talks with the government, which started this morning, are ongoing.

‘Negotiations are continuing, but we are adamant that we will only return once everything has been resolved and organised, especially with regard to the difficulties that patients [face],’ Muchave said.

According to APSUSM, the health workers’ strike will last for 30 days, with workers demanding better working conditions, and the representative said that they will not give in to new government proposals to suspend it.

‘Going on strike is not a luxury, demands are not a favour. We are demanding care for the people themselves, but the people also have to stop and analyse what is happening,’ said the APSUSM president.

Mozambique’s ministry of health (MISAU said today that ‘there are no reasons’ for the strike to resume, and guaranteed that it will ‘ensure the continuity of the provision of health services toÌ the public’.

‘MISAU understands that there are no reasons for calling the aforementioned strike and reiterates that dialogue must continue to be the way to resolve the challenges in the health sector,’ reads a statement regarding the start of the strike.

The strike had been scheduled to resume on 28 March, but was suspended a day earlier following talks with the Mozambican government, which culminated in the fulfilment of some points of the demands, such as the training of health professionals, monitoring visits to hospital units and the resolution of irregularities in the payment of subsidies, APSUSM said at the time.

Almost 30 days after the suspension of the strike, Mozambican health workers have once again complained about the government’s failure to comply and the failure to carry out visits to monitor compliance with the agreements between the parties, saying that the hospitals ‘are worse off than they were at the start of the dialogue’.

‘When the strike was announced, we said loud and clear that our hospitals are seriously suffering from a lack of medical and surgical equipment and medicines. The government made a commitment to reverse this situation, but unfortunately our health facilities are worse off than they were at the start of our dialogue,’ reads the association’s document on this new strike.

At issue was a negotiation that was underway in 2023 between the Mozambican government and APSUSM, an association that covers around 65,000 professionals and which was on strike between August and November 2023 for better working conditions in the public sector.

They complain about the lack of medicines, beds and ambulances in hospitals, as well as non-disposable personal protective equipment, which is ‘forcing staff to buy out of their own pockets’.