Nurses across Israel have launched a general strike on Monday after negotiations over their employment terms reached an impasse. The healthcare professionals claim that the agreement that they had reached with the Finance Ministry earlier this year has not been upheld. The deal put an end to the previous nurses’ strike in February. Nurses Union chief Ilana Cohen said at the end of the first day of sanctions on Monday that they will continue them until the Treasury decides to be “more generous,” such that nurses will be attracted to the profession and willing to do their difficult work.

A nurses’ strike poster (Photo: Al Ittihad)

Hadash MK Dov Khenin attacked the lack of intervention by neo-liberal Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is also the health minister, in the nurses’ dispute and called for recognizing nursing as a preferred profession with special benefits. According to Khenin, the Treasury “rejected the nurses time and again and ignored agreements it had signed with them. They had no choice but to strike.” The nurses are protesting not only against inadequate wages but also the number of nurses employed – at a rate at the bottom of OECD rankings. Deputy Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman, who is leaving negotiations to the Treasury, said that “nothing substantial could be accomplished until after the upcoming election” on January 22, 2013.