Medical staff from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) announced a peaceful national march for next Wednesday, October 14, which will be backed by Metro workers, ISSSTE, Pemex, and CNTE teachers. This Saturday, they began a general assembly to define actions and proposals for their demands to the federal government. In a gathering on Paseo de la Reforma, they announced there will be no mass absences and instead they will take to the streets next week to demand the removal of Rafael Olivos Hernández, secretary general of the National Union of Social Security Workers (SNTSS), as well as a salary increase, better working conditions, and concrete action on the shortage of medical supplies, inputs, and medications. From their sit-in at the IMSS central offices, they warned that they will not bow to threats from management nor allow retaliation against workers who protest this week: "No to repression; if they touch one of us, they touch us all. At the first worker sanctioned, fired, or detained, we will immediately begin a hunger strike here," declared Rafael Soto, a cardiology nurse at the National Medical Center Siglo XXI. Active, retired, and pensioned IMSS workers protest at the Central Offices on Paseo de la Reforma (10/10/2026). Photo: Luis Camacho / EL UNIVERSALThe movement of IMSS doctors, specialists, nurses, and daycare staff was backed by various organizations, such as the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), workers from Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the Institute of Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE), the National Union of Workers of the Collective Transport System (SNTSTC), students, and members of the Sombrero Movement in Mexico City. "We sustain the health system; we are the ones who sustain other kinds of unions — the teachers to the students, to the children, the merchants, all the systems, all the unions. We are the people; we are those at the bottom; we are the ones who have always sustained a system, a corrupt government that has humiliated us. The only value they have is what they stole from the people, what they stole from the people to keep them on their knees," said América Guadalupe Barragán Ochoa, a nurse from Section 3 in Jalisco. With slogans such as "Don't get sick, because there are no supplies," "You are not alone," "If they touch one of us, they touch us all," "A silent people will never be heard," "Not one step back, not one step back," "Olivos Out," and "Onward to victory," health personnel threatened to take their protest to the very end, without affecting patients or the functioning of the public health system. Active, retired, and pensioned IMSS workers protest at the Central Offices on Paseo de la Reforma (10/10/2026). Photo: Luis Camacho / EL UNIVERSAL"You make the decisions, name your representatives, and don't allow any deception when they tell you it's 'a consultation.' We know these people are experts at committing fraud, at imposing themselves by claiming everyone supports them. The rank and file have the power to take the destiny of their organization into their own hands," emphasized Pedro Hernández, leader of CNTE Section 9, referring to the failed dialogue table held Thursday at the Ministry of the Interior (Segob). Meanwhile, Alberto Moctezuma, an ISSSTE medical worker, warned that the Universal Health System (SUS) announced by President Claudia Sheinbaum will face serious consequences without a clear budget backing the personnel. "If sufficient infrastructure is not provided, we will end up with a universalization of precarity, and our people do not deserve that. Our Mexican people deserve the best quality of health care with the best budget, with well-paid public servants. And this is for the beneficiaries, for the patients, for those who have to wait long periods of time to receive their appointments," he lamented. Active, retired, and pensioned IMSS workers protest at the Central Offices on Paseo de la Reforma (10/10/2026). Photo: Luis Camacho / EL UNIVERSALMeanwhile, Homero Zavala, secretary general of the Mexican Union of Mexico City Metro Workers, declared that they back and sympathize with the struggle, since it is the employees who face the consequences of service disruptions, or in this case, the shortage of medications and lack of staff at the IMSS. "We are here in your struggle; we are supporting each other because we know and have lived what you are living. Do you know who gets blamed in the Metro for malfunctions? The workers. We are the ones who receive the insults, just as you do from patients. We don't administer the Metro, we don't manage the resources; we defend the workers," he said this afternoon. Meanwhile, Daniel Silva Morales, a Pemex worker and secretary general of the Mexican Petroleum Transformation Union, stressed restoring the conditions of the unions and demanding the resignation of union leaders, offering support to other struggles, and guaranteed that next Wednesday they will accompany the disgruntled personnel in their mobilization. Active, retired, and pensioned IMSS workers protest at the Central Offices on Paseo de la Reforma (10/10/2026). Photo: Luis Camacho / EL UNIVERSAL"We come as oil workers to protect you, to shelter you, because you are not alone. It's not only the Oil Workers' Union that has opened its eyes. My comrades from the Metro are here, my comrades from the Chamber of Deputies, and other unions that have also opened their eyes. The message is for you: the labor reform gives us the opportunity to throw them out into the street, which is where they should have been. And a message also for your union representative Rafael: he does not represent the rank and file: Olivos out, Olivos out," he reproached. Representatives of doctors and nurses stated that the assembly to organize will take place this afternoon and will last several hours, but they told this outlet that personnel from other states will return to their home regions and local workers will remain at the sit-in until Wednesday, October 14. You may be interested inTake note! These are the marches and gatherings for this October 10 in Mexico City; IMSS workers' mobilizations continueIMSS workers block roads and hold sit-in in Mexico City; they demand a salary increase and the supply of medical supplies and equipmentSheinbaum begins IMSS-Bienestar inspection tour; visits clinic and hospital in Hidalgo