For social workers, striking as if there wasn’t COVID-19
Noa Grinboim came from Netanya to Jerusalem this week to join a demonstration of more than 1,000 social workers who have been on strike for the past 10 days. She carried a handwritten sign that said, “My son has a summer job in an ice cream store and makes more than I do.”
The sign continued with “#We are choking.”
She works at a center to prevent domestic violence, which has skyrocketed during the pandemic.
“A lot more people are turning to us because they are just exploding between being stuck at home and the economic pressure,” she said. “We were trying to find creative ways to help people and had started a lot of new therapy groups. It’s hard for me that we’re striking, but we can’t continue like this.”
Social work has always been a low-paying profession, but many of those at the demonstration said their salaries are embarrassingly low, and they are overloaded with cases to the point that they are unable to function. The Union of Social Workers said 5,000 cases were opened in June, a significant increase over previous months.
Merav Ben-Porat Haviv, who works in a health fund in Jerusalem, says that with a master’s degree and 11 years of experience, the government has to add to her salary for her to even reach minimum wage.
“It really lowers my self-image,” she said. “You finish a month and you feel good about the work you did, and then you open your salary slip and you say, ‘oy.’ The salary doesn’t reflect our training or our job performance.”
She said that during the past few months of the pandemic, she felt like she was neglecting her young children to do her job. She spent hours each day on the phone with new clients, including aiding many who had never needed financial or emotional help before.
The strike means that an estimated 1.5 million people are not able to get the social services they need even more during the time of the pandemic. Social workers say they empathize but say the only way to make change is to go on strike. Teachers and doctors have held similar strikes, and one teachers’ strike in 2007 lasted for 55 days.
Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services Minister Itzik Shmuli says he is sympathetic to the cause but demonstrators say he has so far not succeeded in helping in a concrete way. He was one of the leaders of the 2011 economic protest against rising prices – a role that led to his involvement in politics.
“The minister is doing everything he can to bring the two sides to an agreement that will allow the social workers to go back to work,” spokesman Gil Horev said. “There is a lot of need for them, especially in this time and we hope the two sides will come to an agreement as soon as possible.”
However, Finance Minister Israel Katz seems less sympathetic to their demands.
“Talking today about raising wages anywhere in the public sector is irrelevant,” the head of the Budget Division at the Finance Ministry said.
Shmuli responded in support of the social workers, tweeting about social workers that they “are on the ones on the front line, preventing the next tragedy. If this system collapses amid the second coronavirus wave, there will be no going back.”
The Union of Social Workers also responded: “The most aggressive virus against Israel’s social services is the Budget Division... We call on the prime minister and the finance minister to demand that the head of the Budget Division withdraw his detached and insulting statements aimed at the social workers.”
It is also not just the salary – it is the growing number of cases each social worker is expected to handle. Many say their caseloads have doubled since the beginning of the pandemic and the resulting social problems.
Social workers say they are often expected to handle hundreds of cases simultaneously, meaning they often barely know their clients.
that “the alternative steps are harsher and we are trying to avoid them. Ultimately, there may be no choice but to take them. However, at the moment, we are trying to make rapid decisions that we can agree on.”
The full list of restrictions that the cabinet discussed on Thursday before press time:
• Weekend lockdown, similar to Passover night - from Friday at 5 a.m. until Sunday at 5 a.m., effective next weekend and dependent on legislation
• Gatherings - up to 10 people inside, 20 people outside
• Camps and other educational programs - according to Health Ministry directives or in capsules
• Sports activities - only in open spaces
• Restaurants - only takeout or delivery
• Government reception
• Cafeterias at workplaces only pick-up
• High-risk population reduce contact, refrain from going to work, state will provide general safety net
If this plan is put into effect, it will cost the country NIS 800m. to NIS 1 billion per day, the Finance Ministry said.
Many medical leaders and politicians alike had negative reactions to this plan, among them the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians, which said the decision was “devoid of epidemiological logic.”
Netanyahu wanted to see the lockdown go into effect already this Friday. However, doing so would not be feasible, both because Blue and White said it would not vote in favor of such a move and because it requires legislation offices reduced that could not be prepared in time.
Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit said Thursday afternoon that to date he has not been consulted about the legality of the government announcing a second national lockdown. He was expected to present his position to the cabinet Thursday evening after learning about the initiative through the media.
The goal of the new restrictions is to reduce the number of new daily patients to 400 by August 31, National Security Council head Meir Ben-Shabbat said, with the idea that the situation would be assessed again at the end of the summer.
Currently, the average number of daily patients is much higher than that.
The Health Ministry said on Thursday that 1,861 people were infected with the virus on Wednesday – the highest number of new diagnoses to date. Out of 30,509 tests, the infection rate holds at 6%.
There are around 25,305 people who actively had the virus, among them 202 who are in serious condition. Some 384 people have died.
Earlier in the day at the coronavirus cabinet meeting, Interior Minister Arye Deri warned the group that steps needed to be taken immediately to prepare for the winter, when tens of thousands of people could be sick with the flu.
“Everyone who has the flu will think he has the coronavirus and will run to the hospital,” Deri reportedly said at the meeting. “The hospitals are likely to crack down. We got through the first wave with awesome success, but we lost it all at the beginning of the second wave. When we had 100 newly diagnosed people per day, we needed to prepare better to test, isolate and cut off the infection chains.”
MK Naftali Bennett lashed out at the cabinet’s decision to impose such a lockdown as early as Friday, tweeting that the government is “disconnected, irrational and destructive.”
Coalition member MK Gideon Sa’ar (Likud), who has a historical rivalry with the prime minister, also took to Twitter. He said the move will “exacerbate the damage to the economy” and “will not achieve its desired purpose.”
Also, on Thursday, High Court of Justice President Esther Hayut sent a letter to the entire judicial branch to try to rally them despite setbacks from the second wave.
Hayut said one judge and nine other judicial branch employees are infected and that 24 judges and 192 branch staff are in quarantine.
She said the judiciary was doing its best to learn lessons to bring infection rates down but gave the impression that the courts will remain open.
She also slammed the recent failed attempt in the Knesset to launch a state commission of inquiry regarding judicial conflicts of interest as having ulterior motives, framing it as “another wave” of problems with which the judiciary is having to cope.
At the same time, the Defense Ministry announced it is working to expand its agreement with MyHeritage to conduct 30,000 coronavirus tests per day, up from 10,000. At the same time, the ministry said it’s aiming to shorten response times by expanding automation processes and connecting the laboratory directly to healthcare providers.
The ministry’s Directorate of Production and Procurement said it hopes to sign an agreement with My Heritage in the coming days, the ministry said.
At the same time, the Defense Ministry is working to assist the Health Ministry and healthcare providers in purchasing and bringing testing equipment to Israel. It also announced that it rolled out a financial and hasbara (public diplomacy) support plan for the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community of Kiryat Ye’arim, which has a high level of infection.
A poll by Channel 12 found that a high percentage of the public would prefer the coronavirus crisis be moved to the authority of the defense establishment.
Yonah Jeremy Bob contributed to this report. •