Nurses at Kolenchery and Lakeshore hospitals are not ready to end the strike before the commencement of talks with the managements.
Speaking to The Hindu , Reena Reji, unit president of Nurses Welfare Association at Kolenchery, said that the management had suggested that they would be willing for talks if the nurses return to work.
Calling off a strike without knowing the outcome of the talks would not help the nurses in their struggle for fair wages, she said.
The Lakeshore unit of United Nurses Association in a press release have denied the charge by the management that a part of the striking nurses are not from the hospital. They claimed that 95 per cent are from the hospital. The nurses have salary slips to show that that the management has not been giving minimum wages for the last two years, the release said. The statement also said that the talks initiated by the Labour department had failed because the management had sent personnel who are not authorised to take any decision on their own.
The hospital authorities' claim that the functioning of the hospital has not been affected because they have employed some nurses is wrong, said the statement.
They have only employed student nurses, it said.
Only a few operations are taking place at the hospital, the release said.
