Railway traffic has resumed this evening, after the Israel Railways workers committee and the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) agreed during a hearing at the Tel Aviv Labor Court to suspend the strike launched this morning. Today's labor sanctions included the cancellation of service on the Tel Aviv-Rishon LeZion and the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem lines, and the shutting of the railway's workshops.
The railway workers agreed to suspend their sanction until Wednesday, when the talks between Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini and Minister of Transport Israel Katz on the privatization of railway maintenance are due to end. If the talks deadlock, the workers are threatening to resume their disruptions of rail traffic.
The workers claimed today that even though Eini and Katz promised to suspend the outsources of the railway maintenance work, in exchange for suspending the strike, Israel Railways management expanded the outsourcing without notifying the workers committee.
The workers claim that Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT), which until now repaired rolling stock after 20,000 kilometers of use, had begun carrying out regular maintenance work after 3,000 and 6,000 kilometers. "Israel Railways workers would ultimately be left without work," said the workers committee.
Israel Railways management countered that the workers committee's assertion was false, and that there had been no change in the contract with Caterpillar or in the railways maintenance system.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 9, 2012
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