Maintenance workers at government hospitals announced Sunday they would not make the traditional preparations for Passover, which begins Friday evening.
They will refuse to ensure that the kitchens and cooking utensils are made “kosher I’Pesach,” their union said.
It is the latest development in the ongoing strikes and work stoppages at the government hospitals, where physicians and other employees are locked in a wage dispute with the Finance Ministry.
About half the doctors are observing the strike at a dozen of the 25 government hospitals, where they are providing only emergency care. The rest returned to their jobs reluctantly after receiving back-to-work orders from the ministry last Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Magen David Adom, Israel’s paramedical Red Cross equivalent, is involved in its own dispute with the Treasury, unrelated to the hospital strikes. Magen David Adom operates blood banks, ambulance services and first-aid stations.
The Treasury has frozen MDA’s bank accounts against tax indebtedness and overdue payments to the National Insurance Institute. It has ordered the service to close some of its first-aid stations and reduce expenses across the board before it releases some $2 million.
An MDA board meeting Sunday night warned that to close even one station would be tantamount to shutting down its entire operation. Cables of support from MDA societies abroad, which raise funds for ambulance purchases and new first-aid centers, have begun to pour into MDA headquarters here.
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