Workers Struggles: The Americas
Honduran public transport drivers strike to demand debt relief, subsidy
Public transport drivers in Honduras went on a partial strike the morning of July 22 over a number of demands aimed at addressing the dire situation in which many of them find themselves. In some places bus drivers blocked traffic by parking their vehicles across streets.
Bus and taxi drivers have been hard-hit by the pandemic, and it has been difficult to make loan payments. Some drivers have already lost their vehicles. They are asking for debt relief as well as a subsidy of more than the current $US160, especially since the costs of gasoline, maintenance and repairs, as well as food, have climbed.
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Employees rallied outside Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center Thursday to demand better wages and benefits for essential workers who fed, cleaned up after and sat with COVID-19 patients during the pandemic but say they can barely afford their own healthcare.
More than 100 people turned out at the Fountain Valley facility managed by Tenet Healthcare to draw attention to the fact that, while nurses were granted hazard pay and executives received COVID-19 bonuses, many employees working in high-risk scenarios for much lower salaries received no such extra compensation.
“I was working in the ICU every day,” said Eunice Zamorano, an environmental services (EVS) employee who cleaned rooms where coronavirus patients had been treated, with only gloves and a surgical mask for protection. “It was a very scary time. [But] we didn’t get an extra pay due to COVID.”