Editorial

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses has instructed nursing staff at St Luke`s Hospital to go on strike for two hours tomorrow to protest over a rise in the fee which nurses using the car park near St Luke`s Hospital will have to pay for the service.

The union`s stand is preposterous and its order to members to strike is downright shameful.

The union said that for years nurses had paid 10c to use the car park. Now the administration of the car park has been transferred to Pietà local council.

While the parking fees for the public have not been fixed yet, hospital staff would be charged a special concessionary rate of 35 cents per day.

The union argued that nurses would be prepared to pay an extra five cents if the car park were to be upgraded but the government should subsidise the rest of the tariff.

Union general secretary Colin Galea has said: "No other public service employees have to pay for parking their cars, so why should hospital staff have to?"

The situation is the other way around. Hardly any other public service employees are granted parking facilities, let alone concessionary rates for parking their cars.

Hospital staff are not being "made to" pay anything but are expected to pay for a service which they opt to use.

Indeed, does Mr Galea now expect workers everywhere to go on strike to insist on parking facilities and a subsidy on parking fees, as is the case for those who work at St Luke`s?

It is true that nurses - those who work in the daytime hours - have a serious parking problem. One can also understand their call for the government to help them solve it, but to expect a subsidy as of a right is preposterous, and to order a strike at a hospital to the detriment of patients over this matter is most absurd.

A strike is the most serious form of industrial action a trade union may take. It should only be taken as a last resort. This should be even more so in the case of industrial disputes in hospitals.

Parking before and after working hours cannot be seen as falling within conditions of work and the MUMN`s industrial action is totally unjustified.

That nurses have "for years" been paying just 10c for parking in a locality where parking slots come at a premium was a privilege which the nurses will actually continue to enjoy.

The decision by the MUMN and the support it has found from the Union Haddiema Maghqudin and, now, the General Workers` Union harms the interests of responsible trade unionism.

True to form, the GWU has gone even further - it has instructed other categories of hospital workers to strike.

On its part, the health division is right in taking a firm stand. It said yesterday it was even considering taking legal action.

This is an unnecessary dispute. Hitting patients over this matter is totally unreasonable.

Let`s get back to reason.