The National Labor Court early this morning limited today's general strike to four hours, ending at 10:00 am, after court President Judge Nili Arad ruled that the parties had not fully exhausted the negotiations. The general strike called by the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) was therefore disproportionate.
The general strike began at 6:00 am, and Ben Gurion Airport closed at 8:00 am. There are no trains, only limited bus service, banks are closed, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) will begin trading at 11:00 am, universities are shut, and government hospitals are working on Saturday schedules.
The court ruling said, "The negotiations and discussions were held only briefly relative to the date that the labor dispute was declared and the calling of the strike. This was insufficient to deal with this complicated issue in all its aspects, and all the parties concerned should be given a proper opportunity to pursue their negotiations at the highest level." It added, "Under the circumstances, limiting the freedom to strike to four hours would promote the negotiations and enable dialogue to find an agreed upon solution."
The court also said, "All the parties are interested in talks, as the issue that is the basis for the strike is proper."
The National Labor Court ordered the government and the Histadrut to resume intensive negotiations and report back by November 10 on the progress. Earlier, during a preliminary hearing to prevent the strike, Judge Arad suggested that the parties negotiate for several weeks under court supervision. The Ministry of Finance accepted the offer, but the Histadrut rejected it.
After leaving the preliminary hearing, Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini said, "I'm going all the way on this issue. I did not agree to the compromise proposed by Judge Nili Arad because it contains nothing new. As far as I am concerned a compromise is an agreement that solves the problem. That's not what the Ministry of Finance said. There probably won't be another meeting. We'll go to court and see what it rules. We rejected the structure because the Ministry of Finance has not changed its position. It is only offering worthless solutions. If the court allows the strike to go ahead, the unrestricted strike will begin tomorrow morning."
Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the strike was utterly unnecessary and that solutions to all the problems of contract workers raised by the Histadrut could be found. Although Netanyahu ordered Steinitz to come up with what he called "creative solutions", sources inform ''Globes'' that he also ordered that the solutions will not breach the budget framework, which is basically impossible.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 7, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011