One-day port strike over

Dock workers at Israel’s ports in Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat returned to work on Sunday night, after the National Labor Court ruled the strike over and ordered the two sides to engage in negotiations.

The port workers began their strike at 6 a.m. on Sunday over a number of issues, including a pay raise and pension contributions.

According to the Histadrut labor union, the strike was temporarily deferred after an agreement was reached with the Finance Ministry to protect the workers’ pension funds. A follow-up hearing is scheduled in two weeks to assess the progress of the negotiations and attempt to cement a final agreement.

Israel Ports employees are demanding that their pension funds be recalculated at average recent salary levels, and those pensions be placed in a secure trust fund. The pensions for the port workers are currently calculated at 2005 levels.

Haaretz quotes the chairman of the federation of transport workers in the Histadrut, Avi Adri, as saying: “The pension funds are likely to really be at risk if the port companies fall into financial difficulties. Any creditor can come to management to get their hands on these accounts, and the employees will pay the price. In the end, we want to guarantee what the workers deserve.”

Treasury officials said in response to the strike that “the Histadrut and the ports union are once again using a strike to promote personal interests and to squeeze salary increases at the expense of the taxpayers.”