Workers at Garrahan Children's Hospital strike over pay, budget cutbacks

Doctors and staff at the Garrahan Children’s Hospital, Argentina’s leading paediatric institution, staged a 24-hour strike Wednesday as they ramped up calls for President Javeir Milei to tackle a perceived public health crisis.

Workers at the hospital walked off the job at 7am as part of deepening dispute with the national government over wages, funding, and deteriorating working conditions. 

The protest comes amid mounting frustration at what workers say is a lack of concrete proposals from the government to resolve a deepening crisis in the state healthcare sector.

“Excellence in care, misery in pay,” read one of the signs held by doctors, who also displayed their payslips. 

Resident doctors at the institution – Argentina’s most prestigious paediatric centre – are earning the equivalent of around US$600 per month. A typical family needs at least US$1,000 a month to avoid falling below the poverty line.

Operations and procedures carried out at the hospital are often pioneering. Earlier this month, the Garrahan Hospital achieved a historic first: the birth of a baby who had undergone surgery for a congenital malformation while still in the womb.

Conflict

Staff have been at odds with government hospital authorities for months. The protests, which were initially led by medical residents, now involved nearly all of the hospital’s 4,000 employees.

Criticism aired during the strike was directed explicitly at President Milei and Health Minister Mario Lugones, whom workers accuse of launching “a war against the country’s main children’s hospital,” according to a statement from the internal committee of the ATE state-workers’ union-aligned workers at the Garrahan. 

The protest, they say, is in response to “flagrant lies spread by the government” and worsening labour conditions.

Despite the industrial action, emergency services and inpatient care have been maintained.

Alejandro Lipcovich, ATE general secretary at the hospital, rejected government claims about staffing and income levels: “They say administrative staff make up the majority, but it’s only 10 percent – it’s outrageous,” he complained. 

According to Norma Lezana, the secretary-general of the Asociación de Profesionales y Técnicos del Hospital Garrahan (APyT) group leading the strike, workers are reiterating their demand for “a 100 percent salary adjustment.

Accusing the Milei government of ”dismantling the hospital,” she urged both the national and Buenos Aires City governments to “provide an adequate budget” and “guarantees for residents and fellows.”

“After months of great effort, we’re reaching decisive moments in this huge struggle,” Lezana said in remarks to local media. “They offer a meeting on June 30 and extend compulsory arbitration, yet the President continues to make destructive remarks that shatter all trust.”

Trade unions have also criticised recent pay rises, which amounted to 6.8 percent between January and the end of May. Inflation over the same period reached nearly 12 percent.

Doctors are now demanding a starting monthly salary of 1.8 million pesos (around US$1,500), which unions say more accurately reflects the level of responsibility of hospital staff and the cost of living in Argentina.

Negotiations

Negotiations to date have made little headway. Union leaders report that during recent conciliation hearings, government officials made no proposals and, in the most recent session, failed even to send representatives from the hospital. 

“These delaying tactics are pushing the situation to the limit. There is no will to resolve the conflict,” union representatives told the Noticias Argentinas news agency.

Mauro García, head of intensive care at the Garrahan, voiced support for the strike, stressing the severe strain on public healthcare workers. 

“Do we want public healthcare or not?” he asked in a radio interview. “Sixty percent of our patients have no coverage. Who will care for them if they can’t pay? I’ve worked here for 27 years and have never seen anything like this.”

“The idea of defunding the hospital is outrageous,” he declared.

He also noted that the protest was not intended to hurt the public: “We need to improve wages, but we’re trying to affect the public as little as possible. We feel powerless because no-one listens.”

Union leaders say that the government’s actions form part of a broader agenda to shrink the public sector and dismantle the state. “This isn’t just about Garrahan – it’s the entire public health system that’s under threat,” warned ATE deputy secretary Gerardo Oroz.

The Garrahan protest is unfolding amid growing social unrest, with multiple sectors taking to the streets to demand better wages and public investment. 

Retirees took to the streets around Congress on Wednesday for their weekly protest demanding improved pensions. 

Meanwhile, union groups marched to the Deregulation & State Transformation Ministry before joining the pensioners to support their demands.

– TIMES/AFP/NA/PERFIL