Tue, June 26, 2012
MADRID, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Doctors in the Spanish capital Madrid on Tuesday began three days of strike action in protest at further cutbacks in their wages by the regional authority.
The strike is for three hours in the morning (0600-0900 GMT) and three hours in the afternoon (1300-1600 GMT) and affects 400 health centers in the region.
Doctors have seen a 3.3-percent reduction in wages, as part of the spending cuts of 131 million euros (163.7 million U.S. dollars) in the regional health budget by Esperanza Aguirre, the right-wing Popular Party president of the Madrid Autonomous Community.
It was revealed last week that Aguirre earns the third highest wages among all of Spain's 17 regional presidents.
The trades union Amyts, which represents 3,200 of the region's doctors, claims its members have lost 25-30 percent of their purchasing power since the start of the crisis in 2008.
The strike will continue until Thursday and will end with a protest of doctors outside the La Paz hospital in the north of the city.
The year 2011 saw a series of strikes by teachers in Madrid area in protests at cutbacks in the region's education budget.
