Yad Vashem workers strike over wage dispute

Employees at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum are striking today to protest what they describe as the Treasury’s withdrawal from a negotiated wage agreement.

A union of 400 workers says it is the first full-day strike in the institution’s history. The site remains open to visitors despite the strike, Yad Vashem notes.

Workers accuse the Finance Ministry and Yad Vashem management of backtracking on a pay-raise deal reached after seven years of talks. According to union representatives, the average Yad Vashem salary is 72% lower than the public-sector average, with many staff earning under NIS 9,000 ($2,723) a month.

“Employees who have devoted their lives to preserving the memory of the Holocaust are being treated with contempt,” says workers’ committee member Yiftach Meiri. “This is a moral failure by the state.”

Yad Vashem says in response that 95% of the new collective agreement has already been finalized, offering “significant wage increases” for the next five years. The institution expresses regret over the strike, calling the remaining disputes “bridgeable.”