The True Anatomy of a Strike Action

 The Doctors think they are fighting the Government and the Government thinks it is fighting the doctors - but is that what is really happening? What is the truth? 

The word 'strike' means 'to hit at something very hard with the intention of harming or destroying it'. 

We see an example of this in action in a physical boxing match where the two opponents trade blows. You strike your opponent, maybe on the head, and your opponent also strikes you back, maybe on your face or chest, and you continue to exchange punches until one person succumbs.  

In an industrial action, however, there is a gross distortion of this arrangement. Rather than hit each other directly the combatants look for a vulnerable third party, weak and defenseless, whom they know is connected with the elephant they are fighting in some way and then they actually strike at this helpless target!  People ‘on strike’ chose their targets carefully, striking at those who cannot strike back at them or fight them back.  In the present case, it is vulnerable patients who are being struck. The doctors know they are not going to receive any 'blows' back from the patients.

Seen in this light, the strike action is a very cowardly act. If you have trouble with your employer, go and talk to him and if he refuses to listen to you, pray and go again. And if he still doesn't listen to you, resign and look for another job.  It is unjust, cruel and rather strange that if you have a disagreement with your employers, you should strike patients in the hope that your real opponent will care enough about the patients to concede to your demands! 

Here in Ghana such would be a vain hope and a serious miscalculation anyway.  If the doctors themselves, the avowed ‘carers’ and supposedly in one of the ‘Caring Professions’, do not care about what happens to patients, how can they expect the government to do any better than them and care enough to come and act on their behalf.   As a people, we have become a nation whose hearts are hard and calloused. Caring for one another seems to be very far from us.  Everybody simply wants more money for themselves!  But here is the truth that we need to take to heart:  although the patients cannot reply to the doctors or the government, they do have an advocate, who is no one else but God himself.

This is what the Lord Jesus Christ said about caring for people:
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”    Matthew 25:34-38, 40 NIV

Looking after and caring for the sick is actually caring for God Himself. And the converse is also true. Refusing to care for people is refusing to care for God.

So who is this strike against?   The doctors are not striking at the Government, they are striking at patients and hence at God. And the government is not striking at the doctors, it is also striking at God.  Doctors and government, beware! You both have legitimate and genuine grievances but you are using the wrong method to achieve your ends. 

For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  Hebrews 10:30-31 NIV


Striking or hitting at the weak and vulnerable in our society is a sign of emotional and spiritual immaturity and should never be used as a weapon to seek redress for any grievance (no matter how genuine) that we might have. And the government should also learn to treat people with respect and not exasperate them so that they feel they have to adopt such crude and cruel means to get what they want.

Doctors must change their ways and the government must also change its ways. Lest they both fall into the hands of the almighty God who is always at the defense of the defenseless, the weak and the vulnerable.