After talks break down, diplomats freeze key consular services

Israeli diplomats serving abroad will no longer provide key consular services, after the Foreign Ministry workers union decided to ramp up sanctions following the breakdown of talks with the Finance Ministry Sunday.

The issuing of work permits and many other consular services is to be frozen immediately, the Workers’ Union instructed Israeli diplomats stationed in missions across the globe. Among the services to be ceased is the authentication of public documents and the issuance of papers needed to obtain work permits, such as health certificates or legal papers proving an applicant has no criminal record.

The union is agitating for better working conditions and protesting the outsourcing of key positions to other ministries, and has gradually implemented several sets of labor sanctions. Over the weekend, a labor court ruled that the Finance Ministry needs to sit down with union representative for immediate negotiations. But the talks, held Sunday, broke down because the Finance Ministry refused to even consider the diplomats’ demands, the Workers’ Union claimed.

“So far we avoided implementing such sanctions, but now, after negotiations broke down, we were left with no other choice,” the union said in a statement. “Our demand to regulate our working conditions through a collective agreement is a basic and legitimate request. It cannot be that Foreign Ministry workers will continue to be the only sector in Israel that falls victim of discrimination in that their working conditions are determined unilaterally by the employer, without input by the workers.”

“In the Foreign Ministry, the blame [for the failure of talks] was placed with the representatives of Treasury, led by wages director Koby Amsalem, who consistently refused to enter into any negotiation on the issue,” the union said in a statement.

The Finance Ministry did not reply to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, the union intensified labor sanctions by ceasing to cooperate with the Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet security service because they helped organize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Poland visit last week. The diplomats accused Netanyahu and the security organizations of trying to break the diplomats’ strike.

The bitter labor dispute between the diplomats and the Finance Ministry has been gathering force for months, and since April the workers’ union has been implementing sanctions aimed at disrupting Israeli officials’ visits abroad. The union asked staff to stop sending emails and diplomatic cables along with additional measures to disrupt the functioning of the country’s foreign policy apparatus. Several ministers and other top officials have already been forced to cancel travel plans because ministry staff refused to issue them diplomatic passports.

“The situation is such that one in three young diplomats in the ministry quits because they can’t make ends meet,” the head of the workers’ union, Yair Frommer, told The Times of Israel, describing what he says is the primary motivation for the potential strike.

Another reason relates to the makeup of the new government. There is no foreign minister currently, with Netanyahu acting as minister and reserving the post for the possible return of former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman should he beat fraud and breach of trust charges.

Diplomats are also incensed over the tasking of Justice Minister Tzipi Livni with peace negotiations with the Palestinians, a natural Foreign Ministry preserve.

A new International Relations Ministry, headed by Yuval Steinitz, also deeply undermines the Foreign Ministry’s work, workers claim, and they have boycotted the new office as part of the labor sanctions.

The measures currently in place have not made major headlines in Israel because their effects are not visible outside the ministry, and foreign visits have been going on more or less as usual.

However, they are severely affecting the work done at the ministry. Importantly, the fact that diplomats aren’t supposed to engage in any professional written correspondence significantly hampers the management of the country’s international relations.

According to the directives of the workers’ union, officials should also not send work-related emails, but one ministry official stationed in Jerusalem said that in preparation for foreign visits, the staff is forced to write emails.

Besides refusing to issue diplomatic passports to people who do not work for the Foreign Ministry, employees have also halted providing services to new political appointees within Israel’s diplomatic service. The workers’ union also instructed ministry employees to disregard the usual dress code and come to work in jeans and T-shirts.