‘Fairy tale’: Histadrut chief denies coordination with PM’s office on general strike

Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David denies claims that he said a daylong general strike earlier this week had been coordinated with the Prime Minister’s Office.

“The fairy tale that’s been spun about the strike being planned or coordinated with the Prime Minister’s Office is a baseless claim, a media fabrication that has nothing to do with the truth,” Bar-David says in a statement.

He also defends the decision to call Monday’s strike, which came amid mounting opposition to the government’s judicial revamp plans after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he was giving Defense Minister Yoav Gallant the boot after Gallant urged a legislative pause.

“What always guides me in my decisions is the wellbeing of the country,” Bar-David adds.

The union chief’s comments came after several Hebrew media outlets interviewed Pinchas Idan, the head of the airport workers union, who declared a halt to departures as part of the strike. Some of the stories cited Idan saying Bar-David told him the strike had been coordinated, but included no direct quotes explicitly mentioning the Prime Minister’s Office.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party also denies either the premier or his wife Sara were involved with the strike, saying a telephone call they had with Bar-David and his wife was to stress their opposition to the strike.