Far-right minister calls on Levin to change law to allow public to sue Histadrut over ‘illegal strike’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Far-right lawmaker Yitzhak Wasserlauf calls on Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman to amend the 2006 Israeli Class Action Law to allow the public to sue the Histadrut Labor Federation for damages relating to today’s nationwide work stoppage, which he calls an “illegal strike.”
In a letter to his coalition colleagues, Wasserlauf, who serves as Negev, Galilee and national resilience minister, states that the labor union “plans to shut down the economy, including Ben Gurion Airport and the education system” and that this constitutes a “criminal political strike that is against the law, intended to prevent broad security measures promoted by the government and the coalition.”
He argues that “there is no right to strike when it is purely about national security policy, without any relation to the employment conditions of the Histadrut employees” and that “along with the expectation that the government will act to prevent the illegal strike and withhold wages from its participants, the public must be allowed to be compensated for [the strike’s] many damages.”
Wasserlauf’s comments come after the state prosecutor petitioned the Labor Court to rule against the strike declared by Histadrut Labor Federation chairman Arnon Bar-David, who aims to pressure the government into accepting a hostage deal.
The petition, which was submitted after a request by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, calls on the court to decide that the “strike announced by the Histadrut chairman, regarding all employees of the state, is not a strike for a collective labor dispute, and is, therefore, a political strike.”
Arguing against the strike, Smotrich on Sunday stated that rather than lending a hand to the Israeli economy during wartime, Bar-David was “actually fulfilling [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar’s dream, and instead of representing Israeli workers, he chooses to represent the interests of Hamas.”
