Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
NURSES ACROSS the island yesterday intensified their protest action, demanding that the Government address the long-delayed salary negotiations.
Following yesterday's protest, members of the NAJ convened at the association's Trevennion Park headquarters in St. Andrew to decide on the next step in pressing the Government for better wages and fringe benefits.
"We will continue to intensify our action tomorrow (today)," NAJ President Edith Allwood-Anderson told The Gleaner yesterday.
Reports are that patient care was affected at several hospitals after nurses stopped working for some time.
WAGE-AND-FRINGE BENEFITS SETTLEMENT
The membership of the NAJ had given the Government until June 30 to complete a wage-and-fringe benefits settlement, promote nurses who have been acting in positions for more than six months, and provide a scarcity allowance for them.
The NAJ withdrew its membership from the Jamaica Confed-eration of Trade Unions (JCTU) to negotiate for salaries and fringe benefits for nurses on its own.
They were among at least three unions that did not sign the second Memorandum of Under-standing (MoU2) between the Government and the JCTU.
Last week the NAJ wrote to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, seeking her intervention in the wage impasse. However, the NAJ president said the Prime Minister has yet to respond.
"This shows how little the Prime Minister thinks of health. She knows what is going on and she needs to demonstrate more sensitivity," Mrs. Allwood-Anderson said.
Meanwhile the Jamaica Medical Doctors' Association (JMDA), which has also been at odds with Government over wage and fringe benefits, has called for its members to attend an emergency meeting Friday to discuss the Government's offer for the period 2006-2008.
