General strike
Today Israel is under the throes of a general strike in the public sector. This has been called by the Histadrut Trade Union as a result of a breakdown in negotiations with the Finance Ministry. The Histadrut demand an overall 10% increase in wages, while the Ministry offers only 1%, saying that is the maximum the economy can stand. A compromise is not currently possible.
This happens every year and causes great hardship and suffering, mainly to ordinary working people. For example, the tourism industry is just recovering from last year's war. Tourism is up 15% and people are finally being employed in the airlines, the hotels, restaurants, etc. Now all that will be ruined, since BG airport will be closed down as of tomorrow. To avert some of the suffering the airport will stay open all night to allow people to leave on flights brought forward or that manage to land before the stike starts.
The airport will have an extra 24 hrs open beyond the other facilities. During that time two flights of 500 French immigrants will be able to land. All railways will be stopped, all post offices and Govt. offices closed, everything will come to a standstill. Private bus companies and banks will remain open. How long the Govt. can allow this to continue remains to be seen, but it usually lasts three days or so before the Govt. asks the Labor Court for a back to work order and a compromise amount is arrived at (say 5%).
There seems to be no civilized way to bridge this gap between the wages demanded and those offered. The right to strike is axiomatic in open democratic societies, but it does do great harm and injustice to many people. In this situation, the Manfacturer's Association plays a negotiating role, since they want to avoid a strike at all costs, since it is estimated that it will cost them ca. NIS b1 per day! How this particular strike will work out is unknown, but we all hope it won't drag on. Well, at least we don't have floods as they do in the UK right now, ours is a man-made disaster.
This happens every year and causes great hardship and suffering, mainly to ordinary working people. For example, the tourism industry is just recovering from last year's war. Tourism is up 15% and people are finally being employed in the airlines, the hotels, restaurants, etc. Now all that will be ruined, since BG airport will be closed down as of tomorrow. To avert some of the suffering the airport will stay open all night to allow people to leave on flights brought forward or that manage to land before the stike starts.
The airport will have an extra 24 hrs open beyond the other facilities. During that time two flights of 500 French immigrants will be able to land. All railways will be stopped, all post offices and Govt. offices closed, everything will come to a standstill. Private bus companies and banks will remain open. How long the Govt. can allow this to continue remains to be seen, but it usually lasts three days or so before the Govt. asks the Labor Court for a back to work order and a compromise amount is arrived at (say 5%).
There seems to be no civilized way to bridge this gap between the wages demanded and those offered. The right to strike is axiomatic in open democratic societies, but it does do great harm and injustice to many people. In this situation, the Manfacturer's Association plays a negotiating role, since they want to avoid a strike at all costs, since it is estimated that it will cost them ca. NIS b1 per day! How this particular strike will work out is unknown, but we all hope it won't drag on. Well, at least we don't have floods as they do in the UK right now, ours is a man-made disaster.
posted by Jack Cohen at 10:24 AM
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