The management of Magen David Adom is attempting to replace the workers' committee by intimidating employees into signing petitions supporting this move. A complaint was filed with the police last week about alleged threats by management representatives, and workers sent letters about this to the state comptroller and the health minister.

A few months ago, the workers' committee announced a labor dispute with the management stemming from a decision by MDA's director general, Eli Bin, to introduce a system of rank insignia for staffers. The committee claims this is a unilateral measure aimed at promoting cronies at the expense of others, regardless of qualifications.

MDA workers say that management was angered last week by two events: a Regional Labor Court order to enter negotiations with the workers, and an article in the weekend supplement of Yedioth Ahronoth that exposed Bin's conduct and the harsh criticism by State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss of the manner in which Bin was appointed, his unsuitability for the job and his political affiliation with then-health minister Dan Naveh. Management believed the workers were behind the article.

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"We MDA workers are frequently asked to sign all sorts of documents against the chair of the workers' committee, Ilan Shabtai," the workers wrote to Lindenstrauss. Among the documents was a directive to stop transfering money to the national workers' committee and a petition for holding elections to the national committee. "Anyone who does not sign will seem to be against the director general and that will be reflected by punishment," the workers wrote.

Another group of workers applied to Health Minister Yacov Ben-Yizri for help against "a campaign of threats and intimidation" by MDA management. Some workers reported being required to come in the middle of their ambulance shift to sign petitions; others were called in from home while they were on call.

The head of the public-sector workers' division at the Histadrut labor federation, Yael Nachmani, wrote to MDA management that she had learned that workers were being threatened to leave the Histadrut Clalit and join the Histadrut Leumit. Nachmani warned that this violates workers' constitutional right to organize.

The chair of the clerical workers' union at the Histadrut Clalit, Arnon Bar-David, said that MDA workers have the union's full backing and that he will hold meetings in the next few days to try and resolve the crisis.