Israel hit by general strike

[Jcrowley]

Israel hit by general strike

Staff and agencies
Wednesday March 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


About 400,000 Israeli workers today downed tools as a powerful trade union launched an open-ended strike that stopped international flights and shut down public services.

The Histadrut trade union confederation says thousands of municipal workers it represents have not been paid for months. The government, which says some 600 workers have gone unpaid, blames local authorities for failing to stick to efficiency programmes that would have allowed the salaries to be paid.

The general strike started this morning after marathon talks overnight between union and government officials ended in failure.

Past strikes have lasted for days, each day costing the economy tens of millions of dollars and causing widespread disruption. Travellers are stranded at airports, cargo piles up at seaports and rubbish accumulates on pavements.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2039168,00.html

[oberliner]

1. General strike ends after Histadrut, gov't reach deal

The government and the Histadrut labor federation on Wednesday afternoon reached a deal to end a crippling day-long public sector strike, winning compensation for thousands of unpaid municipal workers.

"I hearby announce that the strike is over and all workers can go back to their jobs," said Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini. "The employees will be paid today or tomorrow."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/840314.html

[leveymg]

2. A leading indicator of where the US is headed.

Israel is in its worst political crisis of the last quarter-century, perhaps ever. Since the failure of the Lebanon invasion last summer, it's become apparent that the neocon vision of a regional Israeli superstate is a pipedream. That realization has forced a domestic crisis, with the far-Right pushing an apocalyptic agenda of national suicide.

Meanwhile, in Washington, the neocons have been all but wiped out as the rational professionals take back control over the Defense Department and intelligence services. The powers of the President and inner-circle have shrunk to near-irrelevance, and the Vice President is close to removal.

If the extreme Right in both countries attempt anything precipitous, expect quiet military coups.

[eyl]

4. WTH

does this have to do with the far right? This salary problem has been brewing on-and-off for months (and recurring for several years in some places)

[leveymg]

6. The political crisis inside Israel that led to this impasse has everything to

do with the breakdown of the political process. The greater part of that has to do with the policies of the Israeli Right. It's a symptom of a larger problem.

[eyl]

8. A symptom of a bigger problem

but not this one. These kinds of strikes have been going on for years.

[leveymg]

9. Probably as long as Likud/Kadima have been in power.

Perhaps longer. You would agree that Israel is in a deep political crisis, or would you not?

[pelsar]

10. nothing to do with kadim/likud

the histradrut, etc has been striking for the past 20+ years for various reasons....a little history might be inorder and less fantasy

[Violet_Crumble]

11. Does the US have anything similar to the Histradrut?

We've got the ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) and it sounds very similar to the Histradrut. I'm just wondering if maybe Americans don't really understand the union movement coz unions there seem to be piss-weak if they even exist. I'm making a few assumptions based on how things are here, but I'm guessing the Histradrut has close ties with the Israeli Labor Party, but those close ties don't stop unions from striking even during times when the power in the government is held by the Labor Party? While more moderate governments will make more of a genuine attempt to resolve the issue before or as soon as a strike happens, conservative governments (which is what we've had the misfortune to have here for more than a decade) will react by passing laws to lessen the power of unions, laws that make striking illegal except for five minutes in a month that starts and ends with the letter X, and if strikes happen even after all that, they'll bring in scab labour to try to undermine the affects of the strike...

I'm making another assumption here, but from reading the articles, it appears to me that the Israeli govt gives funding to local councils and the level of funding is dependent on the councils meeting benchmarks set for them. Some councils didn't get all the funding they wanted, so they chose to stop paying municipal workers, because it's their responsibility, not that of the Israeli govt to pay the workers. The swiftness of the Israeli govt in resolving the dispute (though it does appear to be a stop-gap measure until more permanent solutions are put into place) suggests to me at least that rather than being a glaring indictment of the Israeli govt, it actually showed how things can and should be worked out when strikes happen and that the circumstances that led to this general strike were caused by municipal councils rather than the Israeli govt. How close am I?

[eyl]

12. Well

Sounds like the ACTU and Histadrut are quite similiar. As you surmise, it originally had very close ties with the labor parties (which would eventually become the Labor-with-a-capital-L party), though it's less now than it used to be. AFAIR, there haven't been significant restrictions on the right to strike enacted in recent years, even under right-wing parties, though I may be misremembering*. It should be noted that such a powerful union isn't all good; these strikes cost the economy billions in direct and indirect damage, and are not always justified (in particular, I'm thinking of a case during Netanyahu's tenure as PM where the Histadrut basically called a general strike because the Minister of Finance insulted them).

As for your second paragraph, it seems about right, though I admit I haven't been following the issue closely; anyone more knowledgable (pelsar?) is invited to pitch in.

*Of course, the right-left split works differently here; e.g., we've had socialist right-wing parties in the past.

[HamdenRice]

13. We USED TO have the AFL-CIO

In a way, the US labor movement was at a disadvantage precisely because it got started so early. Unions started out as small craft unions (unions of highly skilled workers, like the carpenters) that began affiliating into the American Federation of Labor. It took a long time for American labor to overcome its early fragmentation, unlike younger countries whose economies developed after unionization was already an accepted fact of economic life -- countries like Israel and Australia.

When big industrial factories in the US took off in the late 1800s/early 1900s, unions of unskilled workers organized into "industrial unions," which eventually affiliated in the Congress of Industrial Organizations, but the craft unions (AFL) looked down on them and were paranoid that they would lead to the end of skilled labor. So the AFL and CIO worked at cross purposes and competed with each other. It wasn't until 1955 that the AFL and CIO merged to form the AFL-CIO.

Federal legal recognization and cooptation of the labor movement made it impossible for the AFL or CIO or later the AFL-CIO to call for general strikes.

While I don't remember the exact legal details, in general, "sympath strikes" or "secondary strikes" are illegal in the US. A secondary strike is a strike by a union in one industry to support a strike in another industry. So, for example, if the auto workers strike, the teamsters cannot strike in support of the auto workers to put more pressure on industry or government.

That makes it de facto impossible for our biggest unions or union congresses to call general strikes. The "ground rules" or our collective bargaining system is that strikes have to be limited to the workers and companies that are bargaining over wages and working conditions.

Now with the decline in unionization, the AFL-CIO is much weaker than it used to be.

[pelsar]

14. how close are you?....

i really dont know.....its a really big political mess with many "agendas" all over the place. I do believe most of the "solutions" are mere stop gap measure designed to keep the place moving until the next crises, in which case it will then be somebody elses problem.

I did find it amusing as the labor union leader apologised for the strike, for the inconvenience that it was about to cause...and then continued with the strike.

what israel is missing is a certain political maturity, where the politicians see their present jobs as real jobs and not just a temporary job as they climb their way to the prime ministership...but thats a whole story by itself.

[Klukie]

3. Tinfoil Time

Mabye a way to clear the skies for an attack on Iran?:tinfoilhat:

On edit: I guess post #1 rules that out.

[leveymg]

5. Why would they want to do that?

Clearing the skies in and around Israel would just make an air strike easier to spot.

[Klukie]

7. Yeah

I'm sure your right. I wouldn't make much of a military strategist. First time for the tinfoil as well. I'll stick to my day job.