After sale, Maariv employees escalate protest against imminent layoffs
Rallying employees say they will go on strike and vow not to publish newspaper next Tuesday
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Employees of the Maariv newspaper rallied at the Tel Aviv office building of IDB Holding Corp. on Thursday after its owner, Nochi Dankner, finalized the deal to sell the paper to hawkish Makor Rishon publisher Shlomo Ben Tzvi.
The paper’s 2,000-odd workers stand to lose much of their severance pay, as well as their jobs, due to the shaky financial straits of Maariv and Dankner, the paper’s principal shareholder. Some 1,500 workers may be laid off as part of the reorganization.
“One newspaper equals an autocracy,” chanted the employees in reference to Israel Hayom, the free Hebrew daily financed by right-wing American-Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson, which has changed the face on the Israeli newspaper industry by offering a free alternative to the major newspapers.
The rallying employees said they will go on strike and vowed not to publish the newspaper next Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Dankner said that he would not be able to pay the entire sum for workers’ severance pay, and expected his partners to come up with part of the money, estimated at some NIS 40 million.
In the Thursday edition, the journalists launched an unusual attack against Israeli government ministers whom, they charge, have failed to come to their defense.
Under the headline “You’re ignoring us; from now on we’re ignoring you,” Maariv informed its readers that — as of Thursday and until further notice — the names and photographs of ministers would no longer grace the pages of the newspaper.
Maariv was first published in 1948 with the establishment of the Israeli state. It was once the country’s largest paper, but in recent years its circulation has fallen behind that of Yedioth Aharonoth and Israel Hayom.
The Times of Israel Community.