Bnei Brak hospital nurses opt for Histadrut representation for first time in its history
The negotiations will be carried out by Amihai Stinger, head of the labor federation’s organization department.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHNurse writing prescriptions (illustrative).(photo credit: INGIMAGE)
Twenty six years after it was founded in Bnei Brak as an ultra-Orthodox hospital, the 390 nurses at Ma’ayanei Hayeshua Medical Center have decided to join the Histadrut labor federation in an effort to improve their working conditions.“It’s time for us, who give our hearts and souls to the hospital, to have better working conditions, like those of nurses in all the other hospitals,” said the nurses’ actions committee.“We will support the workers with full force, and work with them to improve their employment conditions as part of a collective agreement,” said Ilana Cohen, head of the Israel Nurses Association in the Histadrut.“We congratulate Ma’ayanei Hayeshua nurses on becoming unionized and joining us. We know the hospital has a special atmosphere, yet the time has come for nurses to have working conditions like those in hospitals around the country.”After more than a third of the hospital’s nurses signed enrollment forms making the Histadrut their representative organization, the union sent a letter to the hospital management seeking a meeting to discuss labor conditions that would be anchored in the national collective agreement of nurses.The negotiations will be carried out by Amihai Stinger, head of the labor federation’s organization department.Ma’ayanei Hayeshua was created to provide advanced medicine while adhering to all the stringencies of Jewish law. Most of its beds are in the obstetrics, internal medicine and pediatric departments