Overnight talks between representatives of the Histadrut Union and the Finance Ministry, along with the threat of a country-wide strike, resulted in a deal, averting the strike.

Workers will receive a 7.5% raise. Half of the raise will be redirected to financially weaker members, giving them a larger salary boost. In addition there will be a NIS 2000 bonus.

The deal will apply 2 years back retroactively, and stay in effect for the next 3 years.

A sure sign that Rosh HaShanah is on the way is a strike at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport.

The airport workers’ committee once again has found a reason to shut down the airport during the peak summer travel season and only two weeks before high passenger traffic on the eve of the Rosh HaShanah new year holiday.

The workers’ committee excuse this time is its “solidarity” with the Israel Broadcasting Authority, an over-budgeted and over-staffed agency whose employees are in an uproar because of a long overdue government decision to overhaul the agency.

The strike at the airport will be between 10 a.m. and noon, when no flights will be allowed to take off or land.

Workers committee chairman Pinchas Idan revealed his real fear. by stating that if the government gets way and makes the Broadcasting Authority more efficient, it might do the same at the airport.

In his words, reported by Globes:

I call on all workers committees to demonstrate solidarity with the Israel Broadcasting Authority employees in their struggle which is being led by the Histadrut. I call on the legislation to be halted and dialogue begun.

Today the Broadcasting Authority. Tomorrow all of us.

Religious coercion has come from the labor union, of all places, but not for the right reason.

The Histadrut announced on Thursday plans to strike the Ben Gurion Airport throughout this Shabbat – from sundown Friday until Saturday night – but don’t think we are on the eve of the Days of the Messiah.

The union’s problem is not Shabbat. Its complaint is that the Ben Gurion Airport Authority is employing too many contract workers, who are outside of the union.

The Histadrut planned to give those workers the chance to obey the Fourth Commandment, as written in Exodus (Shmot) 20, verses 8-11:

Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it.                       :

Six days may you work and perform all your labor;

But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God; you shall perform no labor, neither you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your beast, nor your stranger who is in your cities.

For [in] six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.

The Airport Authority and the Histadrut have been talking for a month on the union’s demand to limit the number of contract workers, who now number approximately 500 along with 3,400 unionized employees.

The Histadrut planned to observe Jewish law to the hilt. It not only was going to enforce the Fifth Commandment by not working on Shabbat, but it also was not going to interfere with emergency services, which will operate as usual in line with the dictate that one must work on the Shabbat if it means saving a life.

Later on Thursday, the Histadrut reached an agreement with Airport Authority and called off the strike.

The planned strike came at the peak of the summer tourist season. Air traffic is relatively slow on the Sabbath, but nevertheless there are approximately 200 planes scheduled to take off and land this Shabbat.

The Histadrut, Israel’s national labor union, is planning to shoot its ultimate anti-Netanyahu weapon on Thursday with a strike in southern Israel, six days before the elections.

If the National Labor Court allows the strike, ports, government offices, the airport in Eilat, production at large chemical facilities and Egged public buses will be shut down. Train service will not be disrupted.

The threatened strike ostensibly is over the layoffs of approximately 140 workers from Israel Chemicals Bromine Compounds operations.

One Israel Chemical employee told The Jewish Press that contrary to the anti-Netanyahu media’s crying over the workers facing poverty, most of them are earning approximately $10,000 a month, more than six times the average Israeli salary, and will enjoy generous pension benefits.

By coincidence or not, the south is one of the weakest areas for Yitzchak Herzog and Tzipi Livni, who are buoyed by some polls showing that their “Zionist Union” party has a three-seat lead over the Likud.

Holding a strike several days before the elections will help the establishment media keep Iran off the front pages and focus on showing how bad the country is off – all because of Netanyahu.

The Prime Minister admitted at a meeting with French immigrants yesterday that there is a real danger that the Likud might not win 20 seats if “people don’t wake up and stop being apathetic.”

The postal workers’ union has reached an agreement with Israel’s Finance Ministry, ending weeks of uncertainty for 1,500 permanent employees.

An agreement was announced Tuesday with early details including a reduction in the number of days mail carriers will be sent on rounds by two and a half every two weeks.

Thousands will gain tenure in the deal, announced at a 1 pm news conference.

“Today not only prevented the dissolution of the postal company, but we made sure that we anchor the agreements in a way which improves service for Israeli citizens,” said Histadrut labor federation leader Avi Nissenkorn.

“The way we’ve approached the last few weeks is a fundamental part of the struggle to return the human dignity of workers in Israel,” he said.

Numerous sectors of the labor force in Israel participated in work slowdowns and other job actions in solidarity with the postal workers, who were facing massive layoffs and replacement by contract workers instead.

The cutbacks in service at the post offices throughout the country has affected Israelis in many ways, since in Israel, the post office also functions as a bank as well as a center for bill paying and document transfer and ratification.

The Histadrut Labor Federation is expanding its postal strike to other agencies in solidarity with 1,500 full-time postal workers across the country whose fates still hang in the balance.

The government is intending to lay off the workers and replace them with contract workers instead, who will receive no benefits attached to their salaries. At issue is the question of how to make the Israel Postal Company profitable – which at present, it is not.

The nation’s labor union says it will extend its job action on Tuesday, Oct. 7, to include workers at the National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi) as well as the ports and the Justice Ministry.

Workers at the state-owned port in Haifa were already out on strike by Monday, shutting down a major gateway of trade — but the closure was not due to the postal strike. Rather, the walkout came in response to a government plan to build competing, private ports.

Foreign mail will continue to be blocked from entering the country as part of the general postal strike, however..

The Histadrut national labor union has called off its planned shutdown of Ben Gurion Airport Tuesday morning, and workers of Israeli airlines have ended their strike following a special agreement between the government and El Al.

The agreement was signed Monday evening in Israel, less than two hours before the Labor Court was to meet on a petition to issue an injunction against shutting down the airport.

Flights of El Al, Israir and Arkia airlines have been grounded since Sunday because of the Open Skies agreement that the Cabinet approved at the beginning of the week.

The Finance Ministry agreed to reimburse El Al for almost of all of its extraordinary security expenses, which make it less competitive against European airlines that can fly more planes to Israel under the Open Skies agreement.