DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: PUBLIC SECTOR DOCTORS ANNOUNCE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 003545

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA, WHA/CAR, WHA/EPSC, LABOR FOR ILAB

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB PGOV DR PREL
SUBJECT: DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: PUBLIC SECTOR DOCTORS ANNOUNCE
STRIKE - AGAIN



1. SUMMARY. The public-sector doctors' union announced last
week a plan to go on strike, demanding a 100 percent salary
increases from the government. The strike, scheduled to take
place July 11-15, will make number 15 for the union since
January 2004. But the authorities are prepared to stand
firm. Secretary of Public Health Sabino Baez has announced
plans to send military doctors to the hospitals during the
strike in order to guarantee health services to the poorer
population. President Fernandez told the press July 3 that
the 30% pay raise already granted to public sector workers is
all the government will grant in the currently austere budget
situation. END SUMMARY.


2. The Dominican Medical College (CMD),led by Dr. Waldo
Ariel Suero, continues its fight for better wages and
improved hospital conditions. Since January 2004, the CMD has
orchestrated 14 work stoppages of varying scope and length,
in which public doctors only treated emergency patients. The
announcement of a five-day strike scheduled to start July 11
comes as a blow not only to the patients who will be
affected, but also to government officials who have been
negotiating with the CMD over the last 18 months. The
Alternative Social Forum, a group of civic organizations, has
announced its endorsement of the strike, but local Catholic
bishops criticized the method chosen by the CMD to present
their demands.


3. Since taking office almost a year ago, the Fernandez
administration has faced demands from almost all sectors for
wage increases. President Fernandez announced that there
will be no additional wage increase for the medical sector
this year and called the strike "nonsense". In previous
talks, the government agreed to a 30 percent increase for all
public sector employees, including doctors. The wage
increase is occurring in two steps, 15 percent in January and
another 15 percent sometime in July. Fernandez also claimed
that the peso's appreciating exchange rate against the dollar
has added another 30 percent to the employees' buying power.



4. The CMD announced that it would suspend the strike only
if President Fernandez agrees to direct negotiations without
intermediaries. The strike will affect the 173 hospitals of
the Ministry of Public Health and the Dominican Social
Security Institute (IDSS). The CMD has outlined its demands
as:
- A solution to the IDSS "crisis";
- Substantial improvements to public hospitals;
- Reinstatement of all personnel who were dismissed and
replaced with political appointees of the new
administration; and
- 100 percent salary increase for all doctors to take
place in stages: 50 percent increase in 2005 (an
additional 20 percent to the 30 percent already promised by
the government),a 30 percent increase in 2006 and a 20
percent increase in 2007).


5. In April, IDSS fired more than 500 of its employees --
mostly doctors and other medical personnel -- but raised the
salaries of secretaries and other administrative positions.
Most of the employees who were dismissed had monthly salaries
less than RD$6000-7000. IDSS suffers from poor financial
administration and faces closure in 2006. The CMD said it is
committed to fight for the doctors of IDSS.

6. According to the CMD, a resident doctor is paid RD$9200
(US$320) per month and a specialist receives $RD15,400
(US$550) monthly. Embassy contacts at CMD and IDSS told us
that current wages are insufficient to buy basic consumer
goods. Following peso devaluation, rapid inflation and
rising costs in 2003-2004, the CMD secretary said employees
are worse off and claimed they are paid less than doctors in
Haiti.


7. COMMENT. The strike announced by the CMD is viewed here as
one more skirmish in a permanent, stalemated struggle. While
the public sector doctors' salaries are minimal, many doctors
work only one or two hours a day and often fail to show up
for work. Soaring gas prices are a convenient pretext for
the no-shows. Unless economic conditions improve and basic
goods become more affordable, the CMD will continue its
chronic strikes for higher wages. But patients, increasingly
fed up with the inadequacies of the hospitals that most
depend on for medical care, are unlikely to give the union
much sympathy. The strikes themselves have become a devalued
currency through overuse, and Fernandez can count on public
acquiescence in his policy of "no special privileges for the
doctors."
HERTELL