This text has been automatically translated, it may contain errors or inaccuracies.
LABOR DISPUTE
Favorite
Remove from my list

Doctors face their fifth week of strike on Monday against the draft Framework Statute

Due to the complex summer period, this will be the last week of stoppages for the time being, if the situation is not resolved, but doctors do not rule out an indefinite strike from September onwards.

SAN SEBASTIÁN, 17/03/2026.- Médicos se han manifestado este martes frente al Hospital Donostia durante la huelga general convocada por ELA, LAB y otros sindicatos vascos, en demanda de un salario mínimo interprofesional (SMI) propio. EFE/ Javier Etxezarreta
Medical protest stock image. Photo: EFE

On Monday , doctors begin their fifth week of strike, demanding a statute that includes their own working conditions, but negotiations are not going very well, so they will continue to mobilize.

This will be the last strike call until afterthe summer, however, the unions have ensured that they will not, out of responsibility, promote further mobilizations in the summer months because it is a complex stage for the health system, due to the reduction of professionals and the holiday period, although they plan to resume protests in September.

Interviewed on Radio Euskadi, Alberto Martínez, the Minister of Health of the Basque Government, has accused the Ministry of Health of "not wanting to listen to the professionals, not to them, not to the communities, as was evident at the meeting on Wednesday".

"The new law needs consensus," added the counsellor, who added that Osakidetza, within the scope of his powers, has initiated negotiations with doctors to alleviate the situation.

Just last Wednesday, on behalf of the Association for the Rights of Doctors and the Unitary Movement of Doctors, the doctor at Donostia Hospital , Sara Lizeaga, took the floor before the media to state that "most of their claims" can be channelled by the Basque Government.

"It is up to the Department of Health to do so before asking the Ministry to fix its own," he said, warning that "they have no alternative but an indefinite strike." 

CONFLICT IN PUBLIC HEALTH

Sara Lizeaga, doctor: "Most of our claims could be resolved here, and it is up to the government to do so."

EITB

On behalf of the Association for the Rights of Doctors and the Unitary Movement of Doctors, Sara Lizeaga, a doctor at Donostia Hospital, appeared before the media this afternoon to say that "most of their demands can be channelled" by the Basque Government.

18:00 - 20:00

In this context, the stops have increased the waiting lists for surgery, so, as the directorof Osakidetza, Lore Bilbao, had previously acknowledged, Martínez has insisted that the waiting list for surgical operations has increased to about 80 days due to the strike.

You might like

Load more