Israel avoided a local authorities strike at the last minute, but a new strike is now underway. Channel 2 news reports that at 6:00 this morning, a general strike began at Israel's ports. No loading or unloading of cargo of any kind will take place at the ports of Haifa, Ashdod, and Eilat.
The Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) announced the strike after negotiations with the commissioner of wages at the Ministry of Finance reached deadlock. The main bone of contention is the claim for a salary rise for 'generation B' workers, whose employment commenced after the ports reform agreements of February 2005.
The Histadrut says that it is demanding a salary raise of 5% for workers who did not benefit from the raise awarded all public sector workers. In addition, there is a dispute over the size of the salary raise going back to February 2010.
Avi Edri, chairman of the Transport Workers Union at the Histadrut, said, "Although the gaps between the Ministry of Finance and the Histadrut are small, the ministry continues to insist on its position. Today, we are embarking on a uncompromising campaign that will result in a decent wage agreement for the port workers."
Israel Shippers Council chairman Gad Sheffer warned that the ports strike would cause hundreds of millions of shekels in damage a day, and the price of the dispute between the Histadrut, employers, and the Ministry of Finance would be paid by the whole economy. "We understand the workers' hearts. The Shippers Council has been warning for a long time that the situation since February, in which the ports workers have had no valid labor agreements, was insufferable," he said.
Sheffer also criticized what he called the hasty use of the strike weapon before all procedures were used.
The ports workers, backed by the Histadrut, are demanding a pay hike of 9% as part of a new labor agreement. The Ministry of Finance refuses to exceed the 6.25% salary hike given to public sector employees.
Histadrut Transport Workers Union chairman Avi Edery claims that Ministry of Finance is hypocritical - on one hand, it wants to privatize the ports, which would result in their employees no longer being public sector employees, while it insists that the ports employees are still subject to public sector salary agreements on the other.
In addition to the 9% salary hike, the Histadrut is also demanding that hundreds of ports employees hired after 2004 should receive an additional pay hike of 5%, because they did not get this increase as part of the salary agreements signed in 2007. The Ministry of Finance counters that the Histadrut chose to not to include the new employees in that pay hike.
As part of the ports reform agreement signed in 2005, ports employees received a 20% pay hike as well as a NIS 100,000 grant in two equal tranches. The second half of the grant is due to be paid only when the new salary agreement is signed, which will pave the way for the next stage of the ports reform: IPOs by the Ashdod Port Company Ltd., Haifa Port Company Ltd., and Eilat Port Company Ltd.
The average gross monthly salary of an Ashdod Port and Haifa Port employee in NIS 23,000, and Ministry of Finance officials believe that the salary hike that the Histadrut is demanding is irresponsible and that it is only concerned about employees who are already well paid.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 3, 2011
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