US embassy cable - 05SANTODOMINGO3545

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, Labor 
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