Israel’s main labor union announces work dispute

The head of the Histadrut labor union, Avi Nissenkorn, announced a labor dispute in the public sector after negotiations with the Finance Ministry over a new salary agreement for public servants reached a dead end.

The executive and coordination committee of the Histadrut convened on Wednesday morning for an urgent meeting, with Nissenkorn, Israel Teachers’ Union chairman Yossi Wasserman, and Israel Teachers’ Organization chairman Ran Erez attending. The committee voted unanimously to announce a labor dispute.

The decision will potentially affect hundreds of thousands of civil servants, including workers in government ministries, citizens working for the IDF, teachers, nurses, social workers, and employees of municipalities and local councils, and others.

The announcement is a preliminary step ahead of a possible general strike. According to Israeli law, the union must wait two weeks before it can escalate the dispute to a full strike.

“The wages of employees in Israel are too low and this includes workers in the civil sector,” Nissenkorn was quoted by Hebrew-language website Ynet as saying. “I demand that Treasury officials stop dragging their feet in the negotiation to raise the salary of public sector workers, a raise which they deserve.”

Nissenkorn also criticized a planned in reform in national insurance payments for nursing care. Under the reform, he said, thousands of employees who are paying health insurance through their workplace will see payments cut drastically.

“As it stands now, the reform will bring an end to collective insurance. Senior citizens and retired employees deserve to live in peace and deserve the knowledge that they need not worry in case they one day need nursing care,” he said.

The Histadrut is fighting implementation of the reform, which was decided upon a year ago.

Nissenkorn also slammed a planned change in the field of new pension funds. According to the Histadrut, proposed reforms by the government would adversely affect some 2 million employees, by adjusting the method of calculating interest.

For some employees, the new method would reduce their pension payments by nearly half.

“The change planned by the state undermines the basic purpose of a pension fund – to maintain an employee’s quality of life after they retire. The ever-decreasing pension rates are one of the worst ills of the market as it is, and this should be dealt with jointly and wisely and not through draconian unilateral steps as the Treasury plans to do. We will not let the workers and retirees’ social safety net be hurt so badly,” he said.

Wasserman and Erez both issued statements in support of Nissenkorn’s decision.

Wasserman also said the Teachers’ Union would meet on Sunday to decide on whether to call a labor dispute over salaries and other issues of disagreement with the government.