The Southern Israelite. (Augusta, Ga.) 1925-1986, September 26, 1986, Image 7
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Israel’s nurses
stage third strike
since last Friday ^
by Hugh Orgel
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Israel’s
11,000 hospital nurses walked off
their jobs early Monday afternoon.
It was their third walkout since last
Friday when the nurses staged a
six-hour warning strike in support
of demands for higher wages and
better working conditions. On Sun
day and M onday they refused duty
in operating rooms, except for
emergency cases.
The afternoon shift was ordered
by the nurses’ workers committee
not to report to their wards and the
midnight-to-morning shift received
the same instructions. The walkout
disrupted negotiations which began
Monday morning. Dan Michaeli,
director general of the Health Min
istry could not negotiate with the
nurses while their patients were
without proper care.
Michaeli told Israel Television
iater that he could not understand
the nurses’ action inasmuch as the
Health Ministry had agreed to ease
workingconditions by hiring 1,500
more nurses and also agreed to a 33
percent wage increase over what
the nurses were earning at the
beginning of the year. He stressed
that this was 21 percent more than
workers in other sectors receive.
Last spring the hospital nurses
struck for 17 days, crippling na
tional health services. The week
end’s job actions seemed to be a
reprise of the earlier strike. Hospi
tal services were not too severely
affected Friday because elective
surgery is not scheduled for Fri
days. But on Sunday, patients who
had been waiting for surgery—
some for many months—had to be
sent home, and they were in an
angry mood.
Nurses also walked out of the
maternity wards, except those car
ing for premature infants and oth
ers needing special treatment.
Emergency rooms and intensive
care units were staffed by doctors.
Health Minister Mordechai Gur
said that while the nurses have a
case, it was unethical for them to
abandon their patients.
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PAGE 7 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE September 26, 1986