About 5000 government hospital employes and some 6000 electric power station workers were back on the job today after week-long strikes. But labor troubles continued to simmer on other fronts. Police battled striking customs officers at Ashdod this morning to force open the port gates for scores of trucks waiting to deliver or pick up cargo. Administrative personnel at non-government hospitals staged a four hour work stoppage in support of the government hospital workers who were forced to end their walk-out Friday after the Cabinet invoked emergency back-to-work regulations. Meanwhile a revolt was brewing in the leftist Mapam faction whose rank-and-file objected angrily to their leadership’s acquiescence in the government’s action. The striking hospital employes–4000 management and service personnel and 1000 physicians–observed the back-to-work order issued Friday by Health Minister Victor Shemtov of Mapam following an emergency session of the Cabinet. But they did so with unconcealed bitterness. They have severed all contact with Ministry officials and with the Public Service Authority, the umbrella organization of Israel’s civil service employes.
The electric power workers decided to halt their strike this morning only hours before the Cabinet was scheduled to act in that situation. They accepted assurances of speedy negotiations to iron out the complicated situation that developed when the government refused to endorse a new wage agreement they reached with the State-owned Israel Electric Corp. on grounds that it was inflationary. At Ashdod port, the scene of prolonged labor strife last year, dock foremen ended a work slow-down today. But the uniformed customs officers declared a strike for higher wages and locked the port gates as trucks queued up blocking traffic for Hours. They refused to open the gates on the pretext that the port has to be closed when there are no customs officers on duty. Police intervened and a pitched battle ensued. The strike was suspended temporarily as the Finance Ministry sent a deputation to Ashdod for on-the-spot negotiations. Customs officers from Lydda and Jerusalem airports and Haifa will meet in Ashdod tomorrow to decide whether to strike in support of the local customs men.
The government was forced to take action in the hospital workers’ strike to alleviate a rapidly deteriorating situation at 29 government hospitals. Conditions at the hospitals were described as chaotic and all but the most seriously ill patients were sent home last Tuesday. They were re-admitted Friday. The employes are demanding wage parity with the employes of non-governmental hospitals. The emergency regulations that forced them back to work were invoked only twice before–against striking engineers and striking mailmen about two years ago. Although authorized under a civil law they carry severe penalties of up to six years in jail and fines of $1750. Employes of non-government hospitals expressed sympathy for their colleagues and noted that the government takes action against an underpaid and weakly organized group but never against stronger elements of organized labor. The newspaper Al Hamishmar, organ of Mapam, criticized the solution of labor disputes by emergency regulations and expressed regret that Shemtov was “forced” to implement the decision. Shemtov met Thursday night with other Mapam leaders and decided to go along with the government to avoid a cabinet crisis.
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