Ramallah - exclusive to "Jerusalem" dot com - The Union of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Palestine Red Crescent Society began today, Tuesday morning, an open central sit-in at the headquarters of the General Administration of the Crescent Society in the city of Al-Bireh, in conjunction with an open hunger strike.

A spokesman for the Ambulance and Emergency Services Union in the Red Crescent Society, Osama Sweiti, told Al-Quds.com, "About 100 ambulance officers and their families began a sit-in in front of the General Administration of the Red Crescent Society in the city of Al-Bireh, in conjunction with a hunger strike."

The participants in the sit-in chanted slogans and raised banners demanding their trade union rights, and calling on the management of the Red Crescent Society to respond to their demands, after which the sit-down entered the headquarters of the Red Crescent Society, according to Sweiti.

Sweiti noted that if the sit-in continues, a number of ambulance officers will join the sit-in, stressing at the same time that there are no signs of dialogue with the association's management so far.

According to Sweiti, the association's management does not want to give the rights of the workers in the union, refuses to discuss the demands, and did not abide by any of the terms of the agreement signed between us on May 24, 2022.

Sweiti said: "A dialogue session was held on the eighth of this month, and no solution was reached to the conflict and the dialogue failed, which forced us to return again to the escalatory steps that we started with sit-ins and hunger strikes today, and there will be harsh and painful next steps for the association's management, in case the association's management does not comply." our demands."

Sweiti said, "We will not return to dialogue except under escalation. We have tried dialogue without escalation, but the administration of Al-Hilal is dodging and wasting time, and it is working to manage the conflict, not to resolve it, and we have not yet agreed on any of the demands that were on the table during the dialogue session."

For his part, the official spokesman for the Palestine Red Crescent Society, Mamoun al-Abbasi, told Al-Quds.com that the dialogue sessions with the Ambulance and Emergency Services Union had failed, "because there were some issues that were agreed upon, and some controversial issues remained, and we did not reach a path." It is so deadlocked that these escalatory measures are announced, because there are matters that need broader discussion and sufficient and serious dialogue.

With regard to controversial issues, Al-Abbasi said: "We have employees who have been on the contract clause for four years. We acknowledge that they are proven by law, and we want to conduct an evaluation exam for their level of performance and nothing else. Whoever does not succeed in the exam, we will give him sufficient courses that have nothing to do with their contracts, but the union refuses." take the exam.”

Al-Abbasi continued, "One of the members of the union committed administrative transgressions during the past years that led to his dismissal from work, and he was given an opportunity and reinstated to his work after interventions, but he returned and committed the same previous mistakes, and an agreement was reached with the ambulance services union to transfer the administrative responsibility to him to the Hebron branch and not to the workplace." The current one is at the general headquarters of the Crescent Society, but he refuses to move it.

Al-Abbasi stressed that the rest of the issues raised during the dialogue do not have a major problem, such as: “Working hours in Ramadan, and it was suggested that they be transferred to vacations because the association’s management is suffering from a financial crisis.” There are also other issues that need discussion and can be resolved, “We We hope that matters will be resolved through dialogue without resorting to escalation. Protesting is the right of the Ambulance and Emergency Services Union, but issues can be resolved without resorting to escalatory steps."

The Ambulance and Emergency Services Syndicate is calling for the reopening of ambulance and emergency centers and the provision of ambulance vehicles as it was the case before 2018, as the Red Crescent Society administration, according to Osama Sweiti, a spokesman for the Syndicate of Ambulance and Emergency Services, has reduced the number of ambulance and emergency centers and ambulances from 91 to 23 vehicles. Ambulance at home.

The Ambulance and Emergency Services Syndicate is also calling for other issues such as: retirement files, grades and bonuses, the payment of dues to ambulance workers since 2018, the abolition of all repressive measures, the cancellation of leave cancellations, dismissals and mobility, and the confirmation of contract employees without resorting to holding an exam to practice a profession for them because that is according to Sweiti, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health and the management of the Crescent Society is an operating entity and its request is illegal.

According to the union, its protests also came after the Red Crescent Society refused to consider ambulance and emergency workers as a health sector, as well as the association dismissing 45 employees from the union during the month of May, and terminating their services, in addition to the fact that the society did not recognize the rights of ambulance and emergency workers. Like all working sectors in Palestine, these rights have not been disbursed since 2018 until now, as well as the association’s management changing the work system and forcing them to do so.

On the sixth of this month, the Ambulance and Emergency Services Syndicate postponed a central sit-in that was scheduled to be held in front of the Red Crescent Society’s headquarters in Al-Bireh, and confirmed the entry into a new dialogue session with the Society’s management, only one day after announcing its intention to return to the open sit-in after being accused of To manage the Red Crescent Society to renounce the agreement signed on the twenty-fourth of May 2022, and the expiration of the period specified for the implementation of the agreement, which is 45 days from the conclusion of the agreement.

The Syndicate of Ambulance and Emergency Services carried out an open sit-in on the day of the signing of the agreement, in front of the offices of the Crescent Society’s administration inside the Society’s headquarters in Al-Bireh, after an administrative disobedience, and refraining from providing ambulance services, for two days, in all ambulance centers throughout the country, which includes refraining from providing Ambulance and emergency service in full, with the exception of events, security injuries and natural disasters, and being inside the centers, in response to the association's procedures, and to demand a number of rights.