Labor strike to continue through Saturday

The general strike that has paralyzed Israel since Wednesday will continue Saturday as the sides remain deadlocked on a number of issues.

The Finance Ministry and the Israeli Labor Union are expected to meet again Saturday night with the aim of resolving differences before the workweek.

The sides met again Friday at noon for another round of talks aimed at ending the strike, which the Histadrut Labor federation called on Wednesday to protest work conditions for contract workers not directly employed by their places of work.

The Labor court president, Judge Nili Arad, decided not to issue a order stopping the strike earlier Friday morning, ensuring the labor action would continue until she meets with the sides again at 10 a.m. Sunday, according to Ynet news.

The current deadlock is over two matters that neither side is willing to budge on. The government refuses to take on 1,000 contractual workers as state employees — at a cost of millions of shekels. The Labor Union will not agree to the government’s request to refrain from striking on the matter of contract workers until 2016.

The sides will meet again Friday at noon.

On Wednesday, a large chunk of Israel public sector, and much of its private sector, took off work, including airports, trains, municipal authorities, government offices, post offices, hospitals and more. On Thursday, the sides drew closer together and several striking entities, including airports and seaports went back to full operations, raising hopes the strike would end.