This fall in Euskal Herria, and especially in the CAPV, calls have been opened several days of strike. As a citizen, I meet both the education and civil service strikes and the general feminist strike. With the situation we live in, we need those strikes.
Without going into the “union yards”, those who use public services clearly see their decline. The negligence of those responsible; the lack of maintenance of buildings or spaces; the unfortunate management of personal resources; the privatisations and tiredness of many of the professionals who must provide the service are evident. But is it?
The politicians who are managing these services are going to say no, that everything is going well and that the problems are one-off. But do they use public services such as education, health, transport, care, pensions, etc. that they manage?
The minority who manages a public system, its staff, is required to be a user of these services.
I would generally say no. How many politicians have you seen sitting in the chairs of an outpatient clinic? How many waiting for a relative at the door of a public school? How much are public transport going to work? How many receive the €1,080 prize for retirement?
One proposal: to create a rule obliging all workers, technicians, officials and politicians who receive public money to use public services. Nothing else.
Take a minute and think. If this measure were in force and lehendakari needed a resonance, do you think it should wait for the four or five months needed today? Or do you think if a mayor of EH Bildu had his family in public school, the buildings and the outdoor spaces could be as they are today? Or do you think that if any PSE technician needed the help of the social services there would be waiting lists in those services? Or do you think that if a Member of Parliament from Elkarrekin Podemos retired, he would only receive the current pension?
Maybe yes, but there is one thing clear. No one forces anyone to enter public service or politics. Ethics and politics do not always go together, but the minority that we can demand from those who manage a public system, from their staff, is to be a user of these services.
Amets Bengoetxea