National labor union votes in bitter leadership battle

Culminating a hard-fought election campaign, over half a million members of the Histadrut labor federation were set to take to the polls Tuesday to vote on the leader of Israel’s largest trade union.

Former Labour Party leader Shelly Yachimovich is hoping to unseat the incumbent chairman, Avi Nissenkorn, who has served in the position for three years.

Elections for the Histadrut take place every five years, but Nissenkorn’s predecessor Ofer Eini resigned two years into his second term as chairman, allowing his deputy to take the helm.

As of noon just over 20 percent of eligible voters had exercised their right.

Founded in 1920, the Histadrut union quickly grew to be one of the most powerful institutions both in Mandate-era Palestine and, later, in Israel. Although the influence of organized labor has waned in recent years, the Histadrut’s large membership ensures its ability to call paralyzing strikes, and the head of the organization is considered is one of the most powerful political brokers in Israel.

Burying speculation that she was gearing up to mount a challenge on Labor Party chair Isaac Herzog, Yachimovich announced in February that she would seek to become the head of the federation.

Yachimovich, who headed Labor from 2011 to 2013, said she had been “deliberating the move for many months,” and that despite the need to resign from the Knesset if victorious, she was confident she would be able to play a key role in national decision-making as Histadrut chairwoman.

Speaking to Army Radio Tuesday morning, Yachimovich said she planned to make the national union a “truly social, powerful, courageous and incorruptible spearhead for the sake of improving the world of employment, for the sake of the simple and basic right to earn a respectable living.”

She has attacked Nissenkorn throughout the campaign as a “front” for Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s economic policies. Early in the campaign he gained a key endorsement from Kahlon as well as a number of Labor MKs, among them party leader Isaac Herzog.

Nissenkorn, who fought to prevent Yachimovich from joining the race in the first place, has called her a “fire-starter” and questioned her ability to lead cool-headed negotiations with the government.

Throughout her career in politics, and before that as a media personality, Yachimovich gained a reputation for antagonism to big business. Launching Labor’s election campaign in 2012, she called for Israel to take a more socialist approach to government. “Our goal is to establish an alternative, responsible, social democratic government,” she said.

In 2013, campaigning on her social-democratic ideology and focusing on housing and the economy, Yachimovich led Labor to a disappointing 15 seats in the general election. Since then, as a party backbencher, Yachimovich has emerged as one of Herzog’s fiercest critics, solidifying the bitter rivalry between the two.

A poll released Sunday by Mano Geva and Mina Tzemach showed Nissenkorn leading Yachimovich by 52% to 38%. Yachimovich, however, has said internal polling carried out by her campaign shows a much closer race.

“There is a very good chance that once the votes are counted, I will be head of the Histadrut,” she said Tuesday.

If she wins, she will have to resign as a Knesset member, allowing Druze community activist Salah Saad to enter parliament as the next candidate on electoral list of the Zionist Union, an amalgamation of the Labor Party and Hatnua.