Airport strikes in solidarity with postal workers

Workers at Ben-Gurion International Airport went on strike for three hours Thursday in solidarity with Israel Postal Company employees, who have for several weeks been undertaking protest measures against a decision by company executives to lay off 1,500 of their fellow laborers.

The airport strike began at 11 a.m. and lasted until 2 p.m., Ben-Gurion employees said. As a result of the strike, 58 flights with nearly 8,500 passengers on board experienced delays in landing and taking off.

An official at the airport told Ynet in advance of the strike that all airlines would be issued a statement regarding the planned work stoppage so that they could make preparations.

The Tax Authority also joined the solidarity protest Thursday, with the government office’s employees halting services to the public for the day.

During the strike, Histadrut labor federation head Avi Nissenkorn threatened to expand the action into a general strike if a solution for the postal workers is not found soon.

Earlier this month, the postal service’s employees announced that they would launch a strike in protest of the company’s efficiency program, which had come into effect in March. As part of the ongoing strike, government offices, international embassies and foreign missions in Israel will not be provided with mail services.

During the strike, postal workers stopped processing transfers or updates on vehicle ownership at post offices throughout the country.

According to the employees, an understanding was reached with management and Finance Ministry representatives under which hundreds of employees would be designated for early retirement instead of being fired. Last month, however, company executives decided to lay off 1,500 employees, in breach of the previous agreement with the workers, the employees said.

“As part of the negotiations, we agreed to painful efficiency measures, which also included extensive layoffs, out of a sense of responsibility for the fate of the company and concern for the livelihood of thousands of other workers; we agreed to pay a heavy price, and a very painful one,” Shimon Farjun, an employee representative, told Ynet last month.

“But although we had already reached the final stretch, now it turns out that the Finance Ministry and the management want to lay off thousands of other employees. We cannot agree to that,” he said.

The postal company’s recovery plan was designed to save it from collapsing financially, and includes a NIS 113 million budget cut. The plan was drawn up by the company’s management in coordination with the Government Companies Authority at the Finance Ministry, Globes reported.