Court cancels bus drivers’ strike called to protest rider violence

A two-hour nationwide warning strike by Egged bus drivers scheduled for Monday was canceled in an early morning ruling by the National Labor Court, after the company’s management petitioned to quash the labor action.

The Histadrut labor union federation announced Sunday it would hold the brief warning strike of bus drivers on Monday morning to protest violence against drivers.

They group said there has been a spike in violence toward bus drivers in recent months, most recently in an incident last week on Jerusalem’s no. 59 bus in which a passenger in a car attacked a bus driver after the two vehicles collided.

Many drivers report racist comments and various forms of violent interactions with passengers on a nearly daily basis, the union said.

The strike was scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon on Monday, and would have seen all Egged drivers on both inter- and intracity bus routes walk off the job for the duration.

But the court accepted Egged’s appeal against the strike in an overnight decision, ruling that the Transportation Workers Union must limit their strike to a single bus route for a single hour.

That permitted strike is scheduled for 10 a.m. and will only apply to route 59 in Jerusalem, which runs from suburb Mevaseret Zion to the western entrance to the city.

“The court has put things in the right proportion by limiting the scope of the strike, and in doing so prevented unreasonable and unjustified harm to hundreds of thousands of passengers who use public transportation,” said a spokesperson for Egged, the nation’s largest bus operator, on Monday.

Avi Edri, head of the Transportation Workers Union, a member union of the Histadrut, had warned on Sunday that the union intends to expand the protest if the issue isn’t dealt with appropriately by Egged and law enforcement authorities.

“We decided to send a message to anyone who wishes to hurt drivers that we won’t let this violence rear its ugly head. Public transportation drivers refuse to be the punching bags of violent passengers,” Edri said.

Egged slammed the strike on Sunday, saying the Histadrut had not coordinated the strike ahead of time and it would cause a great deal of harm to the bus-riding public.

“Egged believes this is not the appropriate way to deal with violence against drivers, a phenomenon we condemn and are working to prevent,” a spokesperson said. “We call on the Histadrut to reconsider this step and cancel the strike, which hurts passengers without cause.”

The company said it was prepared to call retirees and part-time drivers if the regular drivers go on strike.