Dani Bonfil, head of the Histadrut’s Jerusalem region, said that management “refused” to discuss the problems.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHHistadrut protest [File](photo credit: Courtesy)
The first work dispute has been declared by the Histadrut against the Hadassah Medical Organization since Prof. Zeev Rotstein took over at the beginning of this month as the hospital’s director-general.The general labor federation claimed on behalf of two Jerusalem medical center works committees that Rotstein had taken “one-sided decisions.”Dani Bonfil, head of the Histadrut’s Jerusalem region, said that management “refused” to discuss the problems, so it had “no choice” but to declare a work dispute on behalf of 3,000 of the workers, excluding doctors and nurses.Rotstein had insisted that Amnon Bruchian, the head of the works committee of the maintenance, administrative and technical workers fill a job at the Ein Kerem hospital instead of devoting all of his time to represent the workers.“This is not acceptable in collective agreements,” said the Histadrut.Asked to comment, Hadassah management said it regretted the announcement of a work dispute. It castigated the refusal of Bruchian to fill a regular job, even though he “enjoys a very high salary from Hadassah and the public in the country who supply his money via the government for the [economic] recovery of Hadassah.”HMO management said the Histadrut announcement was “a lie and deception,” because the director-general acted primarily for the benefit of workers and completed the implementation of all collective agreements delayed until recently.Aside from harming patients, sanctions would hurt Hadassah staffers, it continued, because there would be no money to pay their salaries. The problem was “that a single Hadassah employee refuses to work!” Management said it is “bound to do everything to protect Hadassah as an organization that stands on its own feet, while all employees lend a shoulder for its recovery.“Anyone who doesn’t feel like a partner in this effort now belongs outside it.”
![Histadrut protest [File] (photo credit: Courtesy)](https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/q_auto/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822/276777 "Histadrut protest [File]")