Zimbabwean nurses unions announced on Thursday that their members would go on strike next week to protest low wages and working conditions, the second such strike since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
‘Our members will be unable to report for duty beginning Monday, June 20,’ Zimbabwe Professional Nurses Union president Robert Chiduku said in a letter to the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals.
The government and health workers are at odds over pay as Zimbabwean inflation reached 131.7 percent in May, a bleak echo of the hyperinflation that wiped out everyone’s savings a decade ago.
During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the previous strike forced hospitals to turn away patients.
The government did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
According to unions, nurses in Zimbabwe are paid 30,000 Zimbabwe dollars ($79.37) per month.
Chiduku stated that the union had ‘teamed up with our sister unions People are tired of being fed up. Our wages are pitiful ‘, according to Chiduku.
Enock Dongo, president of the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina), said he was mobilising members for the strike but needed to hear back from them before declaring that they would participate.
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