Histadrut to shut down Ben Gurion Airport

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There will be no arrivals or departures by any carrier on Tuesday morning for several hours. El Al has cancelled all flights until further notice.

In a solidarity strike, the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) decided in an emergency session today to shut down Ben Gurion Airport for several hours from 5 am on Tuesday. There will be no arrivals or departures by any carrier, including foreign airlines. The strike will be in solidarity with the strike by employees at Israel's airlines El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL), Arkia Airlines Ltd., and Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. against the open skies agreement with the EU that the government approved today.

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The Histadrut also announced that it was considering other measures to protest the government's decision. El Al announced in response that it was cancelling all its flights until further notice. It asked passengers to keep updated from its website about cancelled flights.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 21, 2013