Major health service launches labor slowdown

Employees of Meuhedet Health Services, one of Israel’s four HMOs, launched an open-ended partial strike on Thursday morning, claiming that the HMO’s upper management and the Finance Ministry were dragging their feet in negotiations for a new labor agreement.

With some 4,000 Meuhedet staff on strike, as of Thursday morning phones will not be answered at Meuhedet clinics, and blood will only be drawn for testing in emergency situations, such as for oncology and fertility patients, and those requiring urgent blood counts.

A source in the worker’s committee told Channel 2 on Wednesday that as the strike continues additional services will be canceled.

Sources in the HMO’s sanctions committee blasted the Finance Ministry and Meuhedet management for “deliberately delaying the signing of the agreement.”

Workers’ committee chair Shelah Ventura said on Wednesday night that Meuhedet workers regretted beginning a strike just before the High Holiday of Yom Kippur but felt they had no alternative. She called on the Finance Ministry and Meuhedet management to “take responsibility and not abandon the thousands of dedicated employees” of the HMO.

In April, Meuhedet employees declared a labor dispute over what they termed the management’s refusal to advance negotiations toward a collective labor agreement. In May, they held a one-day strike to protest the drawn-out negotiations.

Stuart Winer contributed to this report.