A demonstration gathered between 300 and 400 people on Tuesday morning in front of the hospital, in front of which a firefighters' snail operation took place, acclaimed by the crowd of CHU strikers, noted an AFP journalist.

Access to the Guadeloupe University Hospital was blocked for vehicles, but pedestrians continued to circulate.

"We will see at the end of the month what will happen to those suspended. If we are not paid, no one will be," said Gaby Clavier, virulent union representative of UTS UGTG at the CHU, interviewed by AFP .

According to the management of the CHU, 566 suspensions were pronounced, while the rate of compliance with the vaccination obligation is 87%.

At the CHU, the picket line is held by union activists but also suspended caregivers, who are distributed service by service under dedicated barnums.

"We all have reasons not to be stung," nursing assistants in the operating room, who have been suspended for several weeks, told AFP.

Among the reasons given, a "personal choice", "things seen" impossible to tell because "relating to medical confidentiality", "the stories of other sick caregivers who have seen the effects of the vaccine", or the belief in "a world science experiment".

For this staff, the salary suspension "is as if we had a gun to the head".

- Firefighters and education mobilized -

"The fight continues, the government hears nothing, we are cornered, so we will continue until we are heard," said Jocelyn Zou, representative of the Force Ouvrière union in the fire department.

With his fellow firefighters, they ask for a "derogation".

"We had an exemption for chlordecone (while the pesticide was banned everywhere in France, the West Indies were able to continue using the product for a few more years, editor's note), so it is possible for the vaccine obligation", again indicated the trade unionist.

In this illustrative photo, a member of the nursing staff walks past the room of a patient with Covid-19, in the intensive care unit of the Center hospitalier universitaire de Pointe-a-Pitre, in Guadeloupe, September 3, 2021 Carla BERNHARDT AFP / Archives

If a minimum service is ensured through assignments and requisitions, the union representative assures that "it must not work any more so that we see that there is a problem".

Clashes pitted striking firefighters and gendarmes on Monday.

Two firefighters were injured, according to a trade union FO representative, as well as two gendarmes, AFP learned from a gendarmerie source.

The rectorate was also occupied Tuesday by the teaching unions, "in support of the nursing colleagues of the national education", who will also have to receive their vaccine to continue to exercise.

A delegation was received by the rector, we learned from a union source.

"We were able to present our demands, but the rector told us very clearly that she did not have the means to redo a law", but that it "has already been amended", said Jean Dernault, of the union Sneg.

According to the trade unionist, the first suspensions of those affected by the compulsory vaccination in schools would take place after December 15.

Tuesday evening, the trade unions must meet to decide on the continuation of the mobilization.

All promise an upsurge in movement, road blockades, schools, administrative premises, "at a minimum", although for the time being, the nuisance caused remains moderate for the population.

The call for an indefinite general strike was launched by a collective of trade unions and citizens of Guadeloupe to protest against the health pass and the vaccination obligation of caregivers against Covid-19.

© 2021 AFP