Eight thousand physicians employed by the Israel Government or national institutions went on strike this morning to force the government to grant wage increases previously approved by a special governmental investigating committee.
They were joined by architects, engineers, chemists, psychologists and senior government officials, all of whom were in the same, situation as the doctors. To further complicate matters, the Civil Servants Association telegraphed the government that unless it negotiates with it and comes to a settlement, all other civil servants will go on strike tomorrow.
Meanwhile, various members of the Cabinet were making desperate private attempts to convince Dr. Pinchas Rosen, Justice Minister and leader of the Progressive Party, not to make good his threat to pull his small party out of the government coalition. Beginning late last night, when it became known that the government had turned down the wage request and that the professionals would strike, the central committee of the Progressive Party-which supports the demand of the professionals–has been in almost continuous session.
Even as long queues of citizens formed in front of the various organizational and governmental clinics in all parts of the country, unaware of the beginning of the strike, the Cabinet was summoned to an emergency meeting for tomorrow morning to deal with the crisis within the government apparatus which has been disrupted by the walk-out of top officials and which will be further crippled if the other civil servants follow suit tomorrow.
The doctors association decided to leave skeleton crews in each clinic to handle emergency cases. The full complement of nurses was on duty. The physicians’ strike committee refused to discuss its case with representatives of the Histadrut, the general federation of labor, who appeared at a meeting last night between the physician’s committee and a Ministerial group negotiating with. The stoppage of engineers has brought all public works to a standstill.
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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.
