No electricity, no water in Sharon area, and now you can't even get out of here: Workers at Ben Gurion International Airport called off a strike close to 7 pm Tuesday, less than three hours after disrupting flights to protest poor working conditions.
Tsahi Tabakman, Manager of the Workers' Union Department of Professional Employees ordered workers at the airport to resume work after talks with Israel Airports Authority CEO Gabi Ofir.
As of 4:00 p.m Tuesday all departures from the airport were cancelled due to the strike. Since the afternoon hours, the Eilat airport was also on strike. The Airports Authority appealed to the court to issue an injunction against the workers.
The General Workers Union of the Ben Gurion International Airport gave extremely short notice of its intention to strike – and the cancellations occurred almost immediately. Union spokespeople told Ynet that Airports Authority employees were protesting the poor working conditions of contracted workers, who are employed via manpower agencies.
Poor work conditions
“The companies that employ the workers don’t pay overtime or Shabbat salaries to many of them, nor do they provide the social benefits the workers deserve. They also claim that some Ben Gurion workers are made to work 30 days a month against their will. The companies employing the worked deduct sums of up to NIS 1,000 per month,” the union charged. The companies also reportedly subtract “strange deductions,” such as fines of four work hours for workers caught smoking.
The committee said they notified the authorities already two weeks ago that they intended to strike and claimed their strike was within the law because they have a legitimate dispute with the Airport Authority. The Airport Authority said they were shocked by the workers’ decision to strike. “This is a wild strike that was not authorized,” they said, and added they would “not give in to the workers union’s extortion.”
‘We weren’t told of strike in advance’
In response to workers’ claims, the Airport Authority said the work dispute was linked to former Transportation Minister Meir Sheetrir’s decision to transfer responsibility for inter-Israeli airport security checks to the Airport Authority.
Israir representatives said that had thus far cancelled to flights to Eilat, which were to transport some 200 passengers. “There’s not much to do in the meantime, and we can’t predict when the strike will be over,” Israir spokespeople said, adding that no passengers had yet demanded reimbursements for their tickets. Arkia Airlines said as soon as the strike was over, they were ready to fly all passengers to Eilat.
“We didn’t know about the strike in advance, and so there were no preparations,” said Uri Orlev, head of the Ovda and Eilat Airport administrations.
CEO of the Eilat’s hotels union, Shabtai Shai, told Ynet that the strike will harm tourism: “The hotels and the Eilat municipality are making all efforts to bring tourists to Eilat and suddenly there’s a strike at the airport? If it doesn’t end soon, the damages will be severe.”
Tani Goldstein and Shaya Egozi contributed to the report
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