Lab workers’ strike ends following agreement with Finance Ministry
The particulars of the agreement that will end the strike are not yet final, but will include a raise in wages.
By EVE YOUNGLab workers demonstrate outside of Prime Minister's Residence amid strike(photo credit: Courtesy)
In the second week of the lab workers’ strike – and after four days with no meetings – the lab workers union met with representatives of the Health and Finance ministries and reached an agreement.The union and the Finance Ministry issued a joint statement saying that the particulars of the agreement that will end the strike are not yet final, but will include a raise in wages for lab workers.All state hospital labs were participating in the strike, including Sheba Medical Center, Hadassah-University Medical Center, Sourasky Medical Center, Rambam Health Care Campus, Shamir Medical Center and the Shaare Zedek Medical Center. As part of the strike, the hospitals only provided testing for people in life-threatening situations.The union's original requests included a starting salary of at least NIS 50 per hour, a change in the operating schedule of the labs and a plan to correct deficiencies that were presented in the State Comptroller’s Report.Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said in a statement that "lab workers work night and day for the health of Israeli citizens. We are now at war--a war for the well-being of the citizens. In a war all sides must enlist to solve the crisis. The public should not pay with their health for these arguments."Hospital representatives and coronavirus czar Prof. Ronni Gamzu spoke about the difficulties that the strike had caused in coronavirus response efforts.Maayan Hoffman contributed to this report.
