Turkish health workers strike for better pay, conditions

ISTANBUL (AP) — Thousands of Turkish healthcare workers, frustrated by an erosion of their income, have gone on strike, demanding better pay and improved working conditions. Members of the Turkish Medical Association and other unions also staged protests in Ankara and in Istanbul on Tuesday, demanding increased wages. Some health care workers in Turkey earn only slightly above the national minimum wage.  Demands also include shorter shifts, measures to protect them against increased verbal and physical assaults and for COVID-19 infections among healthcare workers to be classified an an occupational hazard. Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel tending to critical patients and emergencies did not participate in the strike.