Delays and overcrowding on buses as Egged drivers strike

Widespread disruptions to bus services in Israel were reported on Wednesday due to a strike by Egged bus drivers.

Egged is the largest bus company in Israel and operates both intercity and urban bus routes.

Around 1,800 Egged drivers gathered in Jerusalem outside of the Finance Ministry on Wednesday morning to protest against what they say are inadequate employment conditions.

The drivers accused the finance and transportation ministries of seeking to change their status from employees of the company to contractors, and of threatening to postpone the salaries of over 6,000 Egged employees in order to bring them to the table.

The head of the Histradut labor union, Avi Nissenkorn, declared last week that Egged drivers will embark on a full-scale strike on November 7 if a solution is not found by then. The Histradut says that the source of the problem is the refusal of the government to renew the drivers’ contracts.

Nissenkorn said that “for many years, and particularly of late, those who run this state are trying to dry up Egged and turn the drivers into contract workers,” according to Channel 10. Nissenkorn added that the conflict over the contracts “is not only harming the status of the drivers, but also the interest of the general public.”

He accused the government of planning to slash subsidies meant to “serve financially challenged populations” and not investing enough in public transportation in Israel.

In a response to Channel 10 about the strike, an Egged spokesman said: “We regret arriving at a situation in which our professional and loyal drivers and workers are forced to bring to a halt public transportation in Israel. It is the finance and transportation ministries that bear responsibility for the chaos and traffic jams that are expected to affect over a million and a half passengers, among them soldiers, children, seniors, and students, who have no other way of getting to their destinations.”

Israel Radio reported that residents of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are complaining of long waits and crowded buses because of the protests.

An Egged spokesman told Army Radio that the finance and transportation ministries are withholding over NIS 250 million ($65 million) from Egged in order to cause financial difficulty at the company, in turn forcing drivers and employees to sign an unfavorable deal out of financial distress.

Guy Landsman, an Egged driver, told Army Radio that “today an Egged driver works 12 hours a day in order to make a living, and also need to work on Friday and Shabbat, but they don’t want to pay us.”