Haifa Chemicals workers protest outside Negev ammonia plant

Hundreds of workers from Haifa Chemicals are protesting the impending closure of the company, hours after the fertilizer maker announced the company would be closing and that all 800 workers would be fired.

Workers protesting against the closure blocked the entrance to the company’s ammonia plant in the Negev.

Earlier today, Haifa Chemicals owner Jules Trump announced he was shutting down operations and letting go of all workers after a compromise for the continued operations of the firm was not reached with the government.

“With great sorrow, and after many efforts, we have reached a point in which we can no longer contain the activities of the company in Israel,” writes Trump writes in a stinging letter directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I understand that we will not get the permit to return to our activities in the near future and so we don’t have a choice but to shut down the firm immediately,” he writes.

The Haifa Chemicals’ ammonia plant in the Haifa Bay was ordered to be shut down in 2013, pitting local residents concerned over the potential for a deadly chemical leak against those who say its closure would adversely affect the economy.

— with Shoshanna Solomon