Healthcare Workers Continue National Strike: Talks with Health Ministry Hit Deadlock. The medical strike committee has not received any new proposals from the Health Ministry. The national strike from June 15 to 19 remains in effect. Healthcare workers insist on a distinct status and fair working conditions.
The National Doctors' Strike Committee once again faced a lack of concrete proposals from the Spanish Ministry of Health. On Monday, representatives of the key medical unions — Confederación Española de Sindicatos Médicos (CESM), Sindicato Médico Andaluz (SMA), Metges de Catalunya (MC), Asociación de Médicos y Titulados Superiores de Madrid (AMYTS), Sindicato Médico de Euskadi (SME), and Sindicato de Facultativos de Galicia Independientes (O’MEGA) — held another meeting with the ministry, but the negotiations did not yield significant progress.
For an hour and a half, the doctors' already-known demands were discussed: a separate employment status, their own platform for negotiations with the government, fair job classification, and a revision of working hours. The only new element was the Ministry of Health's intention in the coming days to discuss with the Council of the Interterritorial Health System (CISNS) possible mechanisms for creating a separate negotiation framework for doctors and clarifying powers between the ministry and the autonomous communities. However, the committee did not receive any concrete decisions or guarantees on the key issues.
Medical unions emphasize that if the authorities insist on maintaining a single regulatory framework for all healthcare workers, doctors demand equal rights and conditions without discrimination. Following the meeting, committee representatives once again stated that they are ready to continue the dialogue, but only if real proposals are presented, not just formal meetings without results. The strike announced for June 15–19 remains in effect, and the unions are calling for widespread mobilization across the country.
According to RUSSPAIN, the situation with prolonged labor disputes in government structures is not unique: similar standoffs have previously been observed in other sectors, such as the prosecutor's office, where the balance of power between groups of critics and supporters of reforms has remained unchanged for years. More about such conflicts can be found in the article on the elections to the Prosecutor's Office — details about the balance of power in the Fiscal Council.
For reference: the national doctors' strike in Spain has been ongoing for five months. The unions' main demands are a separate employment status for doctors, an independent negotiation system with the state, and a fair distribution of powers between the Ministry of Health and the autonomous communities. The issue of revising the Estatuto Marco remains a key point of contention. According to industry experts, a prolonged conflict could affect the stability of public healthcare institutions and the working conditions of tens of thousands of professionals across the country.
