The new law that was approved by congress, prompting these riots, I mean protests, by the teachers and the healthcare professionals, wherein the municipal building housing employee offices in downtown Tegucigalpa where set on fire with Molotov cocktails while personnel inside said building fled to the roof and prayed for rescue.
Congress succumbing to the demands of the thugs, backpedaled fast and cancelled the law, giving into the masses who would rather see the city burn than privatize their public services. My extreme surprise in reading this congressional bill is that I cannot find a single mention of the intent to privatize anything. So why are they burning buildings and cancelling classes and refusing to attend the sick and injured at the hospitals? Why are they holding the government hostage?
I have my own humble interpretation of the law, now scrapped by congress, titled: “Law to re-structure and transform the Health and Education system”. Sounds promising. It would give the health departments and minister of Education the ability to hire and fire personnel without the consent of the unions.
SITRAMEDHYS, which is the union of medical and hospital workers, wouldn’t have a say in the hiring and firing. Similar verbiage is in the law for the Secretary of Education and well the biggest, “baddest” union or syndicate in the country who are also the ones with the most benefits.
The teachers had a bit of a hissy fit and started creating false narratives that the intent was to privatize education. Scores of teachers and doctors, nurses and hospital staff went to the streets to stop the privatization of healthcare and education.
Teachers had a bit of a hissy fit and started creating false narratives
The biggest job provider in this country is the government, the largest portion of the national budget are employee salaries. Also increases in the national budget for this year were for Education and Healthcare. A topic for my future editorial will be the deficit and the ever-increasing salaries for the ever-inefficient government. One of the greatest strangle holds is the inability to fire staff due to benefits acquired with the assistance of the unions.
A small group of individuals has hijacked the government. I’m all for that we the people, the government remains subject to the dictates of the society it governs. I like knowing that the people have a voice. The problem here is that only these two sectors of the population have that voice and they acquired it using intimidation. We should have matching increases in budget for other sectors.
We should be able to fire and hire teachers the same way we would fire a janitor, or private secretary. There are miles of red tape to remove a teacher or doctor from a position if they are under-performing. Incompetence, laziness and sense of entitlement rule where there is little chance of being let go.
There are island budget aid teachers that receive salaries and have never set foot on Roatan. There are doctors with multiple public hospital appointments who can’t possibly visit all these institutions in a day. The system is corrupt and needs restructuring, yet no one dares to touch this subject in congress for fear of having their offices set on fire.
The most educated citizens in our country riot better than common thugs. It’s truly appalling to watch the “protesters” destroy property in the name of social conquests. Teachers and healthcare workers are already the most legally protected and benefited groups in this country. Last year Honduras’ executive branch of government declared a state of emergency in the national health system and for a period of 24 extendable months, since its current status affects the continuity or the timely and efficient provision of public health services to the detriment of the population. Let us fight the laws to restructure this behemoth.
