Cellcom, Pelephone employees end strikes

Nir Sztern Photo: Sivan Faraj
Nir Sztern Photo: Sivan Faraj

Nir Sztern insists layoffs are necessary as part of a company recovery.

The wildcat strikes at mobile operators Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) and Pelephone Communications Ltd., in protests at planned layoffs have been called off. Cellcom management and workers committee have agreed to embark on talks on the matter while Pelephone's management has suspended the planned hearings for the layoffs.

Earlier Cellcom workers' committee chair Maya Yaniv had said, "The workers at Cellcom will not pay the price of the management failures by the company's CEO and chairman. No negotiations will take place before an announcement is made that management's brutal unilateral measures have been suspended."

The protest measures taken by Cellcom's workers followed the company's plan to lay off 700-800 workers after the holidays.

Workers at Pelephone, where there are 400 planned layoffs, were also conducting sanctions and disrupting activity of the company's call centers, among other things, following management's demand to lay off workers and close units at the company. The telephone call centers (customer service and sales services) will work on a reduced format today, as will the service centers, which will close for the day at 5pm.

Cellcom CEO Nir Sztern earlier called on the workers to return to the negotiating table, saying, 'I respect the workers' right to organize protest measures, but the committee chose yesterday to stage an illegal strike. The plan is hard and painful, but in our situation, we have no choice; we must help the company recover."

Sztern said, "I call on you, Cellcom workers, to show responsibility. At the end of the process, most of you will have a stable and secure job. I call on the workers' committee to halt the extreme measures that are causing damage to customers, the company, and in the end, also to the workers.

"Unfortunately, up until now, the workers' committee has refused to sit down with us to discuss the situation, so I again call on the workers' committee, as I have done from the beginning, to come to the negotiating table immediately. I am determined to heal the company."

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 25, 2019

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2019

Nir Sztern Photo: Sivan Faraj
Nir Sztern Photo: Sivan Faraj
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