Home » News » Did caregivers at Ivry-sur-Seine hospital throw their medals in the trash?

Did caregivers at Ivry-sur-Seine hospital throw their medals in the trash?


Emmanuel Macron during his visit to the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, February 27, 2020. – Martin Bureau / POOL / AFP

  • A video of caregivers at Charles-Foix hospital in Ivry-sur-Seine throwing their medals in the trash has been widely circulated on social networks.
  • This act was supposed to be a response to the government’s promises to reward healthcare workers in their fight against the Covid-19.
  • It was actually a union action with false medals printed on paper representing the logo of the French Republic and … a tube of petroleum jelly.

The symbolism of the gesture marked the spirits. In a video published Tuesday on Twitter and on Facebook, and relayed several thousand times, the nursing staff of Charles-Foix hospital in Ivry-sur-Seine throw in a trash can the famous medals promised by the government in order to thank those who have been on the front line facing the epidemic of
coronavirus.

“Medals in the trash, medals are not what you want. What we want is recognition, salaries, means and stop the closing of beds, this is what we currently want in hospitals, “explains a caregiver in a white coat in the foreground, while his colleagues go through the chain to throw the medals in a trash can.

But on closer inspection, these medals are more like pieces of paper and some internet users have strangled themselves imagining the state offering cardboard charms to the “heroes” of the fight against the epidemic, to use the expression by Emmanuel Macron. “I find that paper very easily floats in the wind!” They throw away the paper and keep the content, right? Asks a Twitter user.

FAKE OFF

These are indeed false medals printed on paper and distributed to the staff of this geriatric hospital in the Paris region as part of a union action, explains Nolwenn Cotel, CGT general secretary of the establishment, to 20 minutes. “The idea was to set up an action, we thought it was time to talk about our demands, to deconfinate our anger, something that we had completely put aside with the Covid crisis -19, she explains. We wanted to do something soft but that made an impression, something symbolic. We thought we were going to organize a medal throw to say simply that we don’t want it. It was fake medals that were printed on paper with the logo of the French Republic and a tube of petroleum jelly. The message could not be clearer.

After Emmanuel Macron’s announcement about medals that would be awarded to caregivers mobilized against the coronavirus, Nolwenn Cotel was speechless. “It’s been years that we wait for recognition from the state, it’s been 17 years that our index point is frozen in the public service,” said the activist of the CGT, who recalls that the salary of French hospital nurses point to
23rd place out of 33 in the OECD ranking. “So when we heard that, we thought they were making fun of us. “

As in many French hospitals since the start of the crisis, Charles-Foix staff had to manage the Covid-19 crisis with the means at hand. “We had to deal with a shortage of equipment, a shortage of personnel, we worked with expired masks, trash bags as a blouse, it’s shameful …, blows this caregiver. Even if we managed this crisis well at Charles-Foix, it was at the expense of the nursing staff since we still had more than 80 cases of contamination among our colleagues. “

“Ségur de la santé” does not reassure unions

So, when the hospitals of Ile-de-France finally seem to breathe and see their number of patients with Covid-19 decrease every day a little more, the time has come for the unions (CGT, South and CFDT) to to demand for better working conditions and better wages. The idea being to send a first message when it opened on Monday “Health Segur”.

Yet despite these two-month-long negotiations, which she calls “mere government announcement,” Nolwenn Cotel still has “big doubts.” “What they want to do with this Segur is look back on the 35 hours, although these have not been applied in the hospital for a very long time due to the shortage of staff and the flight of staff to the private sector. We have been placed as heroes in recent months but when we see the way we do it today, we tell ourselves that it is quickly forgotten. “

The medals ? “It’s radio silence on that side”

His only real satisfaction after more than two months of health crisis, having won the hearts of public opinion. “We saw this in this surge of solidarity that was born during the Covid crisis. Beyond the applause, I mainly speak of donations, meal preparations, etc. Now, we are going to need them in the weeks and months to come during the next social mobilizations, concludes the trade unionist. The more we are, the more we will weigh against the government and the more we will be heard. The French have a real role to play in the future on the issue of hospital and health in our country. “

What about the famous medals mentioned at the top of the state on May 13? “I don’t know,” answers Nolwenn Cotel. It’s radio silence on that side. After the outcry that followed this announcement, the Ministry of Solidarity and Health is keeping a low profile. Asked by 20 minutes on this precise point, the general direction of health evaded our question, referring us simply
to the press release relating to the “exceptional Covid-19 premium” published on its official website on May 15.

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