The 60,000-strong civil servants union and the Histadrut’s trades unions are gearing up for a series of strikes and disruptions over the next two weeks, in order to press their demands for wage increases with the Finance Ministry.
The civil servants union has announced a warning strike at all government and municipal offices on Tuesday, while the trades unions announced Friday a statutory two-weeks’ warning of a strike of the entire public sector to go into effect at the end of the month.
The wage increases are opposed by the Treasury, which fears the collapse of the economy.
In the health system, meanwhile, both government and Histadrut doctors continued their work sanctions in all public-sector hospitals.
The hospitals, complaining that they cannot continue to operate with present government per-bed subsidies, have threatened to release into the streets some 2,800 patients, including serious psychotic cases.
The hospitals charge that the per diem rate of $20 per bed they are paid by the Health Ministry is only a fraction of the daily sum paid to government-owned mental institutions.
Among the patients they threaten to release are 150 found guilty of murder and defined as schizophrenics.
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