16-hour negotiations between Nurses Union, Treasury fail to produce positive results.
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Israel's nurses began a nationwide one-day warning strike on Monday after talks between the Histadrut labor federation, Treasury, Health Ministry and the Nurses Union failed to produce positive results the previous night.The union had originally planned to strike on Sunday to protest against the nurses’ heavy load in the health system’s community clinics and hospitals, but postponed the strike for Monday.Negotiations continued for sixteen hours between the sides and ended at 4 a.m. on Monday, according to Army Radio.Nurses Union chief Ilana Cohen maintained on Sunday that her colleagues were “collapsing” due to the severe shortage of nurses and rising number of patients.“The situation is a catastrophe. This is an impossible situation that harms the quality of care for all Israelis. I feel I have the obligation to sound the warning bell. If no solution is found, the situation will just get worse,” she said.Judy Siegel-Itzkovich contributed to this report.