Story from labourstart.org: In two weeks, expect your garbage to start piling up and forget about renewing your passport. The committee leaders at the trade unions department of the Histadrut labor confederation have declared a labor dispute throughout the public sector, following the Finance Ministry's refusal to negotiate sector-wide raises.
Under Israeli law, a general strike can be called two weeks after an official labor dispute is declared.
The dispute encompasses all workers at local authorities, the ministries, the Bank of Israel, the Knesset, the Civil Service Commission, the government hospitals and healthcare facilities, and all government companies.
The government companies affected by the strike include port and train services, the Israel Aerospace Industries and Israel Military Industries, the Mekorot water utility, the Israel Electric Corporation, the Israel Post, Bezeq, El Al and Oil Refineries. (In the case of the privatized companies in the above list, the workers still belong to the Histadrut.)
The National Insurance Institute, universities, Magen David Adom, Employment Service, Israel Broadcasting Authority and national religious services authority will all shut down too if the Histadrut makes good its threat.
At the committee meeting today, Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini called on Prime Minister-acting Finance Minister Ehud Olmert to commence intensive negotiations during the mandatory two-week hiatus before a strike can commence.
He pointed out that since 2005, when its enforced quietude under agreements with the government expired - the Histadrut has been extremely judicious in its use of strikes as a weapon.
"When the government demanded wage cuts to save the economy in 2003, we stood to attention and agreed, in an unprecedented step, to accept the cuts. Now the government has to make a gesture in our direction, given the robust performance of the economy," Eini stated.
In his view, a strike is the last resort, he clarified. Immediately upon his election this year he notified the Finance Ministry that he meant negotiations to be far more intensive. But five minutes into the first meeting he had a nasty surprise, Eini relates: "The wages director announced that he meant to pay zero shekels. That meant he didn't want to negotiate in good faith."
He added that he had absolutely no desire to start a strike.
The trade union leaders claim that the workers are clamoring for news. Yitzhak Pery, leader of the social workers' union, said that 40% of the workers were receiving income supplements because their pay was below the minimum wage. "These are workers with masters' degrees who are caring for the needy. They are needy themselves," he said.
While about it, the Histadrut committee also approved a labor dispute for sanitation workers in Haifa, whose complaint is poor working conditions, and another dispute in the city of Bnei Brak, whose municipality is failing to make timely provisions for workers in provident and mutual funds.
A dispute was also declared at the Geha hospital, based on poor relations between management and workers, and at the laboratories of the Meuhedet healthcare service, because the employer refused to negotiate a collective employment agreement, and over moving the facility from Jerusalem to Lod.
Under Israeli law, a general strike can be called two weeks after an official labor dispute is declared.
The dispute encompasses all workers at local authorities, the ministries, the Bank of Israel, the Knesset, the Civil Service Commission, the government hospitals and healthcare facilities, and all government companies.
The government companies affected by the strike include port and train services, the Israel Aerospace Industries and Israel Military Industries, the Mekorot water utility, the Israel Electric Corporation, the Israel Post, Bezeq, El Al and Oil Refineries. (In the case of the privatized companies in the above list, the workers still belong to the Histadrut.)
The National Insurance Institute, universities, Magen David Adom, Employment Service, Israel Broadcasting Authority and national religious services authority will all shut down too if the Histadrut makes good its threat.
At the committee meeting today, Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini called on Prime Minister-acting Finance Minister Ehud Olmert to commence intensive negotiations during the mandatory two-week hiatus before a strike can commence.
He pointed out that since 2005, when its enforced quietude under agreements with the government expired - the Histadrut has been extremely judicious in its use of strikes as a weapon.
"When the government demanded wage cuts to save the economy in 2003, we stood to attention and agreed, in an unprecedented step, to accept the cuts. Now the government has to make a gesture in our direction, given the robust performance of the economy," Eini stated.
In his view, a strike is the last resort, he clarified. Immediately upon his election this year he notified the Finance Ministry that he meant negotiations to be far more intensive. But five minutes into the first meeting he had a nasty surprise, Eini relates: "The wages director announced that he meant to pay zero shekels. That meant he didn't want to negotiate in good faith."
He added that he had absolutely no desire to start a strike.
The trade union leaders claim that the workers are clamoring for news. Yitzhak Pery, leader of the social workers' union, said that 40% of the workers were receiving income supplements because their pay was below the minimum wage. "These are workers with masters' degrees who are caring for the needy. They are needy themselves," he said.
While about it, the Histadrut committee also approved a labor dispute for sanitation workers in Haifa, whose complaint is poor working conditions, and another dispute in the city of Bnei Brak, whose municipality is failing to make timely provisions for workers in provident and mutual funds.
A dispute was also declared at the Geha hospital, based on poor relations between management and workers, and at the laboratories of the Meuhedet healthcare service, because the employer refused to negotiate a collective employment agreement, and over moving the facility from Jerusalem to Lod.
1 comment:
Hello
Aidez moi a mettre les biographies des grandes personnalites sur jewisheritage.fr
help me to write the biographies of great personnalities
shalom
Post a Comment