Social Services Strike
Enters Seventh Week
Jerusalem (JTA) — Social ser-
vices in Israel have virtually
ground to a halt as a strike by the
nation's estimated 9,000 social
workers entered its seventh week
and salary negotiations with the
Treasury failed to yield an agree-
ment.
"It is one of the longest strikes
(in Israel) based on the unwill-
ingness of the government to pro-
vide a living wage for the social
work profession," said Brian Aus-
lander, director of a local welfare
office, at a news conference this
week.
The strike has created special
difficulties in cases of child abuse
and abortion, both areas in which
a social worker's involvement is
legally required, as well as in hos-
pitals and in elderly home care.
The social workers say there
have been 2,000 to 3,000 appeals
to them for urgent intervention,
only several dozen of which have
been granted.
Minister of Labor and Social
Affairs Ora Namir issued back-
to-work orders this week to about
70 social workers and warned
them to call off the strike or she
would "take all possible steps to
end it."
Ms. Namir, who ordered an
additional 70 social workers back
to their jobs last week, has won
the Cabinet's approval to issue
710 such orders.
The move "makes us very an-
gry," said Eli Ben-Gera, secretary
general of the Social Workers
Union.
He said such orders are sup-
posed to be issued by the gov-
ernment only in times of national
emergency and instead "are be-
ing used to break our strike."
Social workers struck after the
Treasury failed to honor a pre-
liminary contract agreement
reached 18 months ago to up-
grade their pay. They have been
working without a contract ever
since.
Most full-time social workers
receive salaries from the govern-
ment that fall below the mini-
mum wage, which is roughly
$500 a month gross, Mr. Aus-
lander said. Seventy percent of
them receive mandated supple-
mental assistance to bring them
up to the minimum wage level,
he said.
"Our wages are very similar to
our clients'," said Esther Sapiria,
who described herself as a su-
pervisor at a local welfare agency.
According to the Treasury,
however, the average gross salary
for a social worker at the end of
Social workers
struck after the
Treasury failed to
honor a preliminary
contract agreement
reached 18 months
ago.
last year was $1,000 a month,
roughly the same as an acade-
mic employee in the public sec-
tor.
Treasury officials are prepared
to give the social workers an in-
crease of between 45 to 50 per-
cent over the next four years, but
the social workers are standing
firm in their demand for an in-
crease of 60 percent, Mr. Ben-
Gera said.
Na'amat, Israel's largest
women's labor organization, has
come out in support of the strike.
Nearly 90 percent of Israel's so-
cial workers are women.
Hezbollah Is Planning
Attacks In Germany
Berlin (JTA) — A German news-
paper this week carried a report
that the Islamic fundamentalist
Hezbollah movement is planning
to launch attacks against Israeli
targets in Germany to avenge the
kidnapping of one of their lead-
ers by Israel last month.
The German weekly Der
Spiegel quoted Arab intelligence
sources who said that interna-
tional terrorist groups are as-
sisting Hezbollah in their new
mission.
The newspaper reported that
an adviser to the international
terrorist known as Carlos has left
his hiding place in Iran and gone
to Beirut.
As part of the planned
reprisals, the Abu Nidal Pales-
tinian terrorist group has smug-
gled into Germany four activists
who arrived from Beirut via
Cyprus using false identities, the
paper reported.
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