The general strike of healthcare workers in Herzegovina-Neretva Canton (HNK) began Thursday morning when many of them gathered in front of the University Clinical Hospital (UCH) Mostar, from where they called on the HNK Government "to sit down and prevent a disaster in healthcare."

“The HNK government humiliates health workers and violates the law. This is for every criminal complaint, for this kind of authorities, for their treatment towards us. It is the union that respects the law, forces the Government to adhere to it, and the Government that doesn’t adhere to it. This is the only government that has sent the Trade Union to court, shame on them. During the coronavirus pandemic, they clapped and said ‘Well done, workers!’. Where are they now? We have nothing to say but that we will fight until the end until the collective agreement is signed,” said the president of the Independent Union of Employees of UCH Mostar, Ivica Anic.

The Speaker of the UCH Mostar Independent Trade Union Assembly, Ana Misic, said that healthcare workers are asking for a 30 percent salary increase.

President of the Health Workers’ Union of HNK Dalibor Vukovic pointed out that more than four thousand workers throughout HNK have gone on a general strike.

“From this moment, many of our patients and citizens were left without mandatory health insurance, without a large part of the health services that belong to them under health insurance. For six full months, with no legal act, no letter, the HNK Government didn’t address the Union nor tried to do what was their legal obligation, which is to stop healthcare workers from going on a general strike,” Vukovic said.