Stevedores refuse to return to work despite court order

Israeli port workers refused to return to work Thursday, continuing an unsanctioned strike to protest plans to open the nation’s ports to international competition and drawing threats of police action from Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz.

A Haifa Labor Court ordered the longshoremen back to work early Thursday, a day after they called the wildcat strike.

A Beersheba court gave a similar ruling for Ashdod port workers. But port workers in both cities refused to comply with the court orders.

Katz responded to the strike by threatening to have the workers thrown in jail and vowing to go ahead with the planned port reforms.

“If they do not abide by the emergency court orders we will demand that they be arrested as criminals,” Katz said.

“They are terrorizing the Israeli economy and hurting Israel’s standing. They are causing damage,” he added. “There was no reason for this strike.”

The port workers told the Ynet news site they launched the strike because of “continued violations of the rights of the port workers by the transportation minister and the government of Israel.”

Workers are up in arms over a government plan to allow new privatized ports that will allow international shippers to bypass the unions.

The Thursday strike was meant to coincide with Katz signing an agreement with the Chinese and Dutch companies that will open new Haifa and Ashdod ports in another few years.

Train workers promised to join the striking stevedores Sunday in a show of solidarity.

However, the Histadrut labor union denounced the unlawful strike, in a rare turn against the dock workers.

“The Histadrut has always supported the righteous fight of the Israeli port employees and will continue to do so,” Avi Edri, Histadrut’s head of the transportation workers, said. “However, the Histadrut calls on the port workers to honor the decisions made at the labor courts and return to work.”

“[The government hasn’t] been talking to us for a year and a half, the Histadrut sold us out, and the new ports will destroy us,” a representative of the workers added.

Katz said he will go ahead with port reforms despite the protests. “Strikes and threats have not deterred me so far and will not deter me in the future,” the transportation minister told Ynet.

“The reforms will continue and promote competition and lead to the lowering of the cost of living,” he said. “The contracts will be signed in any case and turn Israel into an international terminal for sea transport.”

Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid also came out against the strikers, saying the issue was nonpartisan.

“We support the government,” Lapid said, “because this strike is out of control.”

The strike has caused a backup, angering industrialists and leaving 37 ships docked and full of cargo at the Haifa and Ashdod ports, waiting for workers to unload them.

Avi Kosto, CEO of the transportation company Sa-Sa, told Ynet, “Today I need to deliver 150 containers from the port to an Ashdod customer and I can’t do it.”