Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has failed to prevent Monday's local authorities strike. The strike will go ahead as planned. Netanyahu invited local authority heads to a meeting with him tonight in his offices to hear their problems but was unable to offer solutions.
All local authorities throughout Israel will now strike, and basic services to residents will not be given. Secretarial services, school cleaning and maintenance, and garbage collection will strike. In addition, parking tickets will not be given until the end of the strike.
Over the last few days, the local authorities have been completing preparations for the strike, including the printing of protest placards, and setting up of a coordination center between the various authorities. The local authority heads are protesting a series of moves they claim harm local authorities, such as the transferring of most of Lottery revenues to state coffers, reducing balancing grants to authorities with limited funds, and expanding arnona (local property tax) exemptions for the needy. The Union of Local Authorities in Israel chairman Shlomo Bohbot says that the strike is in protest of a series of populist decisions that have harmed the status of local authorities, eroded their budgetary capabilities, and harmed the authorities' sources of income.
"We're ready, and even though we don’t plan to hold demonstrations, we have no intention of sitting by quietly," Bohbot told "Globes". "Each day, there will be a new campaign to disrupt work by government ministries, just like the IDF. We will not reveal our plans ahead of time, and we will make sure that government offices will also not be able to function."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 15, 2012
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