Did caregivers at Ivry hospital throw away their medals?

• A video of caregivers at Charles-Foix hospital in Ivry-sur-Seine throwing their medals in the trash has been widely circulated on social networks.
• This act was supposed to be a response to the government's promises to reward healthcare workers in their fight against the Covid-19.
• It was actually a trade union action with false medals printed on paper representing the logo of the French Republic and… a tube of petroleum jelly.

The symbolism of the gesture marked the spirits. In a video published Tuesday on Twitter and on Facebook, and relayed several thousand times, the nursing staff at Charles-Foix hospital in Ivry-sur-Seine throw the famous medals promised by the government into a trash can to thank those and those who have been on the front lines of the coronavirus epidemic.

“Medals in the trash, medals are not what we want. What we want is recognition, salaries, means and stop the closing of beds, this is what we currently want in hospitals, "explains a caregiver in a white coat in the foreground, while his colleagues go through the chain to throw the medals in a trash can.

But on closer inspection, these medals are more like pieces of paper and some internet users have strangled themselves imagining the state offering cardboard charms to the "heroes" of the fight against the epidemic, to use the expression by Emmanuel Macron. "I find that paper very easily floats in the wind!" They throw away the paper and keep the content, right? Asks a Twitter user.

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These are false medals printed on paper and distributed to the staff of this geriatric hospital in the Paris region as part of a union action, explains Nolwenn Cotel, CGT general secretary of the establishment, to 20 Minutes . "The idea was to set up an action, we thought it was time to talk about our demands, to deconfinate our anger, something that we had totally put aside with the Covid crisis -19, she explains. We wanted to do something soft but that made an impression, something symbolic. We told ourselves that we were going to organize a medal throw to simply say that we don't want it. These were false medals that we printed on paper the logo of the French Republic and a tube of petroleum jelly. The message could not be clearer.

Here are the famous (fake) medals thrown in the trash by the nursing staff of the Charles-Foix hospital in Ivry-sur-Seine on May 26, in response to the promises made by Sibeth Ndiaye ten days earlier. The message could not be clearer. pic.twitter.com/T1SBNUTv0y

After Emmanuel Macron's announcement about the medals that would be awarded to caregivers mobilized against the coronavirus, Nolwenn Cotel was speechless. "It's been years that we wait for recognition from the state, it's been 17 years that our index point is frozen in the public service," said the activist of the CGT, who recalls that the salary of French hospital nurses rank 23rd out of 33 in the OECD ranking. "So when we heard that, we thought they were making fun of us. "

As in many French hospitals since the start of the crisis, Charles-Foix staff had to manage the Covid-19 crisis with the means at hand. “We had to deal with a shortage of equipment, a shortage of staff, we worked with expired masks, trash bags as a blouse, it's shameful…, blows this caregiver. Even if we managed this crisis well at Charles-Foix, it was to the detriment of the nursing staff since we still had more than 80 cases of contamination among our colleagues. "

"Ségur de la santé" does not reassure unions

So, when the hospitals of Ile-de-France finally seem to breathe and see their number of patients with Covid-19 decrease every day a little more, the time has come for the unions (CGT, South and CFDT) to to demand for better working conditions and better wages. The idea being to pass a first message while the "Ségur de la santé" opened on Monday.

However, despite these negotiations which must be spread over two months, which she describes as "a simple announcement effect on the part of the government", Nolwenn Cotel still has "big doubts". “What they want to do, with this Ségur, is to go back to the 35 hours, although these have not already been applied in the hospital for a very long time given the lack of staff and the flight of staff to private. We have been placed as heroes in recent months but when we see the way we do it today, we tell ourselves that it is quickly forgotten. "

The medals ? "It's radio silence on that side"

His only real satisfaction after more than two months of health crisis, to have won the hearts of public opinion. “We saw this in this surge of solidarity that was born during the Covid crisis. Beyond the applause, I am talking mainly about donations, meal preparations, etc. Now, we will need them in the weeks and months to come during the next social mobilizations, concludes the trade unionist. The more we are, the more we will weigh against the government and the more we will be heard. The French have a real role to play in the future on the issue of hospital and health in our country. "

What, finally, of the famous medals mentioned at the summit of the state on May 13? "I don't know," answers Nolwenn Cotel. It's radio silence on that side. After the outcry that followed this announcement, the Ministry of Solidarity and Health is keeping a low profile. Questioned by 20 Minutes on this precise point, the general direction of health evaded our question, referring us simply to the press release relating to the “exceptional premium Covid-19” published on its official site last May 15.

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