Factory layoffs leave Likud members in the cold

Nearly two weeks into a workers’ strike at Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL) following the firing of 140 employees from its bromine factory, Prime Minister Netanyahu panned the company, claiming it was using its employees as a “pressure lever” to extort money from the government.

The factory’s 850 employees are protesting the multi-national manufacturing company’s decision to summon 140 employees to hearings prior to dismissal, without the consent of the workers’ union or the Histadrut.

As part of a wider downsizing program, the company plans to lay off a total of 300 workers from the factory, Israeli news site Ynet reported Thursday.

“I consider the improper way in which ICL’s management is using the dismissal at the bromine factory as a pressure lever to extract wide-scaled financial benefits from the state during the election season to be severe,” Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook post Thursday.

“They must immediately freeze the layoffs, and negotiate with the workers and the government after the elections.”

The prime minister’s comments came as many employees directed their anger at Netanyahu and his Likud party, Walla reported Thursday.

Hundreds of the factory’s employees are Likud members, and over a dozen are central committee members, though many of them have decided to leave the party, with some even publicly burning their membership cards.

“Bibi [Benjamin Netanyahu] abandoned us,” chairman of the factory’s workers’ union, Avner Ben Senior told Walla. “I feel humiliated. This will be the first time I will not be voting for Likud. It is very hard for me, but that is where it’s at.”

Another long-time Likud member said not only will he not be voting for the party, he will even be convincing others to do the same. “Every election, we help the party’s campaign, but no more. They let us down.”

According to Israel Chemicals, the bromine factory, located 12 kilometers south of Beersheba, has lost NIS 1.4 billion since 2007, contrary to politicians’ claims that the factory was profitable, financial newspaper TheMarker reported.

“In the past decade we transferred NIS 550 million in welfare budgets to the workers’ union. The bromine factory employees travel abroad to exotic locations twice a year, at a subsidized cost,” officials at ICL told TheMarker Wednesday, claiming they offer better conditions than any other industrial company.

An employee lashed back at the management, citing the CEO’s NIS 20 million annual salary, 59 times higher than the average employee.

“ICL’s management claims the company is not profitable, so they must fire employees. If this is the case, we demand that before employees are dismissed, the executive salaries be cut by 50 percent,” he said Thursday.