General strike to be launched Wednesday
Histadrut labor federation says no negotiations being held with Finance, Interior Ministries over local authority workers' unpaid salaries. Airports, trains, government offices and local authorities expected to take part in strike if no breakthrough is reached by Wednesday morning
Histadrut officials said that no negotiations were being held at the moment, in spite of the prime minister's promise to deal with the matter.
The Finance and Interior Ministries are expected to continue their efforts Tuesday to pay the workers whose salaries were held back.
Airports, trains, government offices and local authorities are expected to take part in Wednesday's strike. The education system will not be on strike, but kindergarten assistants will not show up for work. The airports will be closed and planes will not be allowed to land or depart, excluding planes that leave for Israel before the strike is launched.
'Only 2,000 workers have not received wages'
The Histadrut said Sunday that 26 local authorities and 18 religious councils held back the salaries of approximately 3,000 workers.
Finance Ministry officials claimed that the government had transferred the funds to pay the wages of some of the employees, and that "only" 1,100 workers in the local authorities and about 1,000 workers in the religious councils had not been paid.
The Histadrut rejected the Treasury's claims, saying that no significance change had been made. Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini said that "the numbers being thrown around by the Treasury don’t stand the test of reality, and are being used to mislead the public.”
