Two-day truce was called in the nurses’ strike on Wednesday, as the strike was poised to enter its 11th day. “We decided on a two-day truce to help the hospitals, and in good faith end the crisis as fast as possible. I hope that once it ends there will be intensive, real negotiations and a solution to the crisis,” said Ilana Cohen, National Nurses Union Chairwoman. She said that the relief measure will help general health clinics and bring more flexibility in treating emergency cases. During the strike, hospitals have been operating during certain hours with a skeleton staff of nurses. So far, some 3,500 operations have been canceled nationwide.
The nurses are pushing for a new wage contract with significant salary increases over the contract that is expiring at the end of December. They also want action taken by the authorities to increase significantly the amount of nursing manpower.
Nurses demonstration during the strike on Beilinson hospital in the city of Petah Tikva on December 6, 2012 protesting the poor state of manpower in the health system and demanding fulfillment of agreements singed with the government (Photo: Activestills)
The Tel Aviv Labor Court rejected late Tuesday night the government’s request to issue restraining orders against 28,000 nurses who have been applying sanctions in public health institutions for the past eleven days. During the hearing Tuesday evening, Judge Efrat Laxer called a recess for representatives of the two sides to come to her office. Before the break, she criticized the Finance Ministry’s conduct. Laxer turned to the Treasury’s wage division director, attorney Kobi Amsalem, and told him: “You cannot be ‘half pregnant.’ You are holding negotiations in spite of the fact Israel is facing elections.” Hadash MK Dov Khenin charged that it “wasn’t the nurses who abandoned their patients on during the strike, but the government.”
Related:
