About 12,000 patients were deprived of basic services at the government’s 25 general, geriatric and psychiatric hospitals, which were hit over the weekend by a general strike of 10,000 service and clerical employees.
Relatives and friends of the patients were urged to bring them food and bed linens. The hospitals could not be reached by telephone because the switchboards were not staffed.
Cooks laundry and maintenance workers, clerks and auxiliary helpers walked off the job to demand the same wages and fringe benefits received by their counterparts at hospitals run by Kupat Holim, the Histadrut’s health care agency.
They claim the gap in wages ranges from 30 to 70 percent since the Histadrut employees won a new contract last year. The Health Ministry warned Saturday night that the country’s hospital system, already hit by selective strikes by doctors and anesthesiologists, would collapse if the service workers’ walkout continues for another day or two.
The strikers said they would not permit volunteers to replace them. But they agreed to allow patients’ families and friends to bring food and other supplies on an individual basis.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
