Foreign Ministry workers’ strike threatens school Poland trips

An ongoing strike at the Foreign Ministry could prevent thousands of Israeli high school students from taking part in Holocaust educational trips to Poland.

As part of a longstanding labor dispute, ministry workers were refusing to issue diplomatic passports to security guards who accompany the school groups traveling to Poland, Army Radio reported on Tuesday.

The move would cancel upcoming trips for some 8,000 11th and 12th-grade students at 70 high schools.

If the trips are called off, the Education Ministry will not be able to refund the thousands of shekels paid by parents for their children to attend, the radio report said.

In response to the announcement, the finance and education ministries on Tuesday turned to the Jerusalem Labor Court in an effort to force the Foreign Ministry to issue the passports.

Since 2013, the diplomatic corps have staged several strikes protesting what employees said are low wages and poor working conditions.

Earlier this year, the Foreign Ministry reached an agreement with the Finance Ministry that included higher salaries and incentives for diplomats working in less attractive countries.

However, ministry workers say the treasury has failed to implement large parts of that agreement, leading to the current crisis.

In March, the diplomatic corps threatened to hold up processing the work permits for thousands of Chinese construction workers in an act of protest.

Two months later, they threatened to disrupt the visit of US President Donald Trump to Israel by refusing to issue US diplomats travel documents.

The Foreign Ministry appeared to have backed down from both protests as the deal to bring 6,000 Chinese construction workers to Israel later this year has been finalized with the Chinese government. Trump’s visit to Israel in late May also proceeded without any diplomatic hiccups.