The Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) intends to declare a labor dispute at El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) in the coming week, in protest against the airline's aircraft leasing policy, Channel 2 News reports. Two weeks after the declaration, El Al's union will be able to call a complete strike.
El Al's workers and management received notification of the planned move in the past twenty-four hours. It comes after several months of disruptions and delays in El Al's services because of the dispute between the pilots' union at the airline and the management.
In order to declare a labor dispute, the Histadrut must obtain a majority in a special vote by the employees, in accordance with the labor agreement at the airline. The heads of the workers' committees have been instructed by the head of the Histadrut's Transport Division Avi Edri to begin the vote today. Histadrut sources estimate that the required majority will be obtained.
El Al said in response, "In the past year, the pilots have imposed sanctions that have caused disruption in the airline's operations and harm to its passengers. Because of this, to prevent flight cancellations the company has been forced to lease aircraft from other airlines in order not to inconvenience travelers.
"Ending the operation of leased aircraft will lead to the cancellation of many flights daily. It is strange that the Histadrut has chosen this particular timing to approve the process of declaring a labor dispute instead of calling on the pilots to return to regular work."
The El Al pilots' workers' committee said, "This is a methodical plan by El Al's management arising solely from business considerations. It is being carried out at the expense of the passengers who pay full fares and expect to fly on an Israeli airline operated by Israeli flight attendants, technicians and pilots. The Histadrut understood that the national carrier had become a brokerage company without passengers being informed and at the expense of all its workers. The blame laid on the pilots is false and baseless, as has become clear many times. In the past few days it has been demonstrated that the attempt to put the responsibility on the pilots is baseless, and the workers and the Histadrut have realized that in order to put an end to the damage being caused to the airline it is necessary to request the declaration of a labor dispute."
El Al's share price is currently down by just over 1%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 13, 2016
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