Battle Over Budget Looms, Histadrut Threatens General Strike

Government and labor moved closer to a confrontation over plans for massive budget cuts and higher taxes as Histadrut Labor Federation Chairman Ofer Eini on Wednesday threatened to mount a general strike.

“Should our request not be immediately complied with, we intend to use all possible means at our disposal in order to protect the rights of the workers and prevent harm to the public workers and retirees,” Eini wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid, in which he demanded inclusion of the union in budget negotiations.

“The budget proposal contains tough economic cuts that will hurt the economic condition of the public workers and the retirees, a public struggling under a heavy burden that includes the middle class as well as the lower class,” he wrote.

Globes quoted sources saying that the Histadrut will call a labor dispute next Monday or Tuesday, if the demand is not met, clearing the way legally for a strike after a mandatory 14-day cooling-off period.

Eini’s tough talk should not have surprised Lapid, who, on Tuesday night, said he was prepared for “war” over the budget, including a review of “ancient agreements,” alluding to the collective wage agreements reached with the Histadrut.

A source close to the Histadrut said on Wednesday that “if Lapid insists on going to war, which means a war against organized labor, he can expect a much bigger war than the Israeli economy has ever seen between employers and employees. We’ll be ready for it.”

Netanyahu, for his part, said he would not be intimidated by union pressure tactics, and pledged to move ahead with economic reforms.

“Following the cellular and open skies [reforms], next week we will bring reforms to cheapen private cars in Israel, and after that will come a huge reform at the Israeli ports, and then we will cheapen a variety of products,” he said.

“Let me stress: No strike will deter us,” he continued. “It’s impossible to build a strong economy without increasing competition.”

Opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich denounced the Netanyahu-Lapid austerity budget, saying, “Yes, I know the worldview that believes the state should be run like a business, and neglects the people, and produces unbearable inequality among them, and sows discord between the nation’s groups, and cuts more and more from the nation and sheds more and more responsibility to its citizens,” she said. “It’s almost always accompanied by pompous slogans and lofty rhetoric.”

This article appeared in print on page 6 of the April 25th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.