The Israel Cabinet met in an extraordinary session today to consider the consequences of the two-day-old strike of doctors, engineers and other professionals employed by the government and the national institutions and universities. The Cabinet also wrestled with the problems raised by the Progressive Party, which supports the strikers, quitting the coalition yesterday.
Meanwhile, senior civil servants, who joined the strike yesterday, returned to their desks today. Tomorrow, all civil servants will stage a two-hour protest walkout because the government has been negotiating directly with the striking doctors and academic personnel rather than through the Civil Service Association.
The Progressives’ withdrawal from the Cabinet has not endangered the government’s Parliamentary working majority, which still numbers 71 deputies in the 120 seat House However, this crisis, paralleling as it does the strike, has disturbed the Mapai Party, leader of the coalition. Thus far Mapai circles refuse to discuss naming a successor to Dr. Pinchas Rosen, Progressive leader and Justice Minister until he resigned last night.
When Dr. Rosen quit, he told Premier David Ben Gurion that his action was in protest over the government’s reversal of a decision to grant the professionals as much of a raise as a government investigating commission had recommended. Meanwhile, Histadrut, the Israel federation of labor, has issued a statement condemning the strike as “anti-government” and “anti-Histadrut.” It had no visible effect as far as bringing the strikers back to work was concerned.
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