Government pushes tenders for two private seaports

A much-bandied reform in Israel’s ports commenced Wednesday, as the government released a tender for companies to build and operate new, privately owned docks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who presented the tender, asserted that the reforms would lower the cost of living and hobble the powerful dock workers’ labor union, preventing its 2,000-odd members from bringing Israel’s economy to a standstill with strikes.

The initiative to build two new ports, one in Haifa and the other in Ashdod, aimed to circumvent the powerful stevedores at those two ports, as well as Ofer Eini and the national Histadrut labor union.

Israeli media in May reported that the transportation and finance ministries were preparing ways to combat any potential strike by dock workers in response to the plan. Among the options under consideration, the reports said, was the deployment of either IDF soldiers or foreign workers to step into the breach.

“I won’t accept this monopoly. I want to tell my friends in the Histadrut — it’s over,” Netanyahu said Wednesday at a press conference presenting the tenders. “Two thousand people won’t cripple the country.”

“We won’t stop here. I promise nothing will deter us,” he added, alluding to the government’s willingness to quash strikes.

Netanyahu said the government was working on further reforms to lower costs and improve the economy. “We started with Open Skies” he said, referring to a recently signed deal with the EU to reduce the costs of flights to and from the country, “and now we’re moving toward open waters.”

“The decision to build two ports creates a situation in which real competition can develop in Haifa and Ashdod,” Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said, noting that while the new plan circumvented the existing, state-held ports, steps were also being taken to make those ports more efficient.

“This government is here to get the work done,” Finance Minister Yair Lapid told reporters at the briefing. “Today we’re bringing seaport reform to the Israeli public, which has been waiting for it for 65 years.”

Lapid said that besides lowering prices and fighting the climbing cost of living, the seaport reform would create thousands of new jobs outside Israel’s bustling central region. The move, he said, “could change people’s fate.”

In response to the announcement, the Histadrut said it would make sure its workers’ rights were safeguarded as the reform took place. Representatives of the Haifa port union told Israel Radio that they were prepared to face the competition.