Mater Dei emergency department nurses join GWU

Nurses at Mater Dei Hospital’s emergency department have joined the General Workers’ Union, the organisation’s secretary general said.

Josef Bugeja said an absolute majority of nurses from the 90 who work at the emergency department had become members.

The nurses were previously members of the Malta Union of Midwives Nurses, the majority union in the healthcare sector.

Bugeja would not say why the nurses opted to join the GWU but indicated that they may have been fed up with confrontational attitude adopted by the MUMN towards hospital management.

“The mistake at this stage is to instil doubt in the health authorities managing the battle against this virus. We have to trust the professionals. These workers chose the GWU because it embraces the principle of conciliation and unity not confrontation,” Bugeja said.

The nurses will form part of the union’s professional sector and will shortly elect a committee so that talks could start with management on a number of proposals.

Nurse Daniel Said, who was present for the press conference, used the occasion to urge people to wash their hands often, avoid public contact and stay inside.

“This fight against coronavirus can be as easy or as difficult as we make it out to be,” he said.