Port workers have rejected appeals by Minister of Finance Silvan Shalom and Minister of Transport Ephraim Sneh to end their industrial action, and chose to continue the sanctions. At the same time, the forum of port users closed the ports, preventing entry and departure to and from the ports.
Yitzhak Yosef, head of the port workers campaign, confirmed damage was being caused, but not to the extent reported by business organizations. Yosef said thousands of containers were loaded at the ports. "The provocations (caused) by the reports are aimed at diverting attention from the dispute between port workers and the Ministry of Finance. A restructuring agreement was recently reached and is awaiting the ministry's approval."
Zion Sarid, head of the Haifa port equipment committee, said the committee told the forum, which had a meeting with Ministry of Finance representatives yesterday, "We'll return to work the minute a restructuring agreement is signed. The agreement has been ready for three months. We agreed to restructuring, the elimination of jobs, reductions in work hours, and other things that no other workers' committee agreed to. However, they're unwilling to sign."
Shlomo Shani, head of the Histadrut trade unions division, told ''Globes'' that he had submitted a guideline for solving the dispute to the Ministry of Finance yesterday, but had not yet received a response. "We propose the ministry sign the restructuring agreement, enter into negotiations with the workers on a new wage agreement, and simultaneously begin negotiations to set up Ports Authority subsidiaries."
"If this guideline is accepted, we'll return to work immediately. The restructuring agreed on between the workers and the authority guarantees 30%-40% better efficiency. Our proposals are fair and in the spirit of the agreement between MK Amir Perez (One Israel), chairman of the Histadrut, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Transport. We want to ensure that after the agreement (is approved), structural changes and privatization will not be imposed on us, and that the subsidiaries will be set up with mutual agreement."
Commenting on the actions by business organizations, Shani said he understood the frustration of the port users, since they were the main victims." However, unfortunately they're strengthening the Ministry of Finance's hand by these steps, and preventing an agreement acceptable to the minister from being implemented. Instead, they should be directing their criticism at and lobbying the Ministry of Finance."
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 31 October, 2001