Local authorities set to join social workers strike
Buhbut: Social work is at heart of services we provide our residents; strike causing municipalities to buckle because of workers' absence.
By JPOST.COM STAFF, JONAH MANDELSocial workers protest in the North 311(photo credit: Courtesy)
The Union of Local Authorities said that if there is no resolution to the social workers labor dispute by Monday, that it will launch a full strike (not including educational institutions) on Tuesday.Union of Local Authorities chairman Shlomo Buhbut said, "The local authorities were forced to strike because social work is at the heart of the services we provide our residents with." He added that the union demands full compensation for any wage increase included in an agreement.RELATED:Social workers’ strike goes on as latest wage talks stallTreasury agrees to central social workers demandThe social workers’ strike is causing the municipalities to buckle under the pressure their absence has created, Buhbut explained on Wednesday.The Wednesday night talks, which included Welfare and Social Services Minister Moshe Kahlon, Deputy Finance Minister Yitzhak Cohen, and representatives of the Histadrut labor federation and the Social Workers Union, focused on mechanisms that would equalize the wages of social workers employed by NGOs that provide services outsourced to them by the state.The Finance Ministry agreed on Tuesday to a dramatic increase in the salaries of some 5,000 social workers employed and paid by NGOs that receive state funding. There are another 10,000 social workers employed by the state and local authorities, whose conditions are currently somewhat better than those working for the NGOs.Talks on the wages and working conditions of those employed by the state have yet to begin.
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