At the end of last week, the Supreme Court of New York State again granted a petition by Canadian corporation CanWest Global Communications (NYSE: CWG; TSX: CGS) for an ex parte injunction against Mirkaei Tikshoret in the dispute regarding "The Jerusalem Post". It cannot be ruled that this injunction will later be canceled; the court canceled a similar ex parte injunction issued two months ago.
CanWest has been embroiled in a legal dispute with Mirkaei Tikshoret, controlled by Eli Azur, over control of “The Jerusalem Post”. The injunction bars Mirkaei Tikshoret from instituting unilateral measures and changes at the newspaper before the legal dispute is settled. Mirkaei Tikshoret declined to respond while the matter was still being litigated.
CanWest said, “In November 2004, Eli Azur and CanWest signed an agreement to jointly acquire the newspaper. Since the agreement was signed, however, Azur has violated its terms, refused to transfer half the shares of the newspaper, as stipulated in the agreement, and implemented unilateral restructuring measures at the paper. Among other things, these measures included the lay-off of fifteen print shop employees without any prior notice. CanWest will not allow Eli Azur to violate the agreement that he signed. It will continue to oppose his attempts to take over the paper and make changes indicating that he is under heavy financial pressure.”
The parties signed an agreement in June 2004 to establish a joint company to hold the shares in “The Jerusalem Post”. The parties signed a memorandum to this effect, but the company was not founded. In November 2004, Azur bought the shares himself. Two months ago, CanWest petitioned the Supreme Court of New York State for an ex parte injunction against Mirkaei Tikshoret. The court granted the injunction, but the injunction was canceled shortly afterwards.
Printing employees at “The Jerusalem Post”, together with the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel), petitioned the Labor Court against the “Palestine Post” group, the parent company of “The Jerusalem Post”, and Eli Azur, its controlling shareholder. The petition alleges that the controlling shareholders of “The Jerusalem Post” took unilateral measures, without informing the printing employees that they were being laid off from the newspaper, and that printing of the newspaper was being moved from Jerusalem to the Mirkaei Tikshoret printing plant in Rishon LeZion.
The petition was filed after management of “The Jerusalem Post” decided two weeks ago to move printing of the newspaper to Rishon LeZion, putting the newspaper’s fifteen printing employees out of work. The employees learned that they had been laid off from press reports. In the past few days, however, "The Jerusalem Post" general manager Moshe Bar-Zvi has tried to find jobs for at least some of the printing workers.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on March 15, 2005