Flights allowed to land despite strike

Four flights landed at Ben-Gurion Airport on Wednesday after the Histadrut labor federation launched a general strike at 9 am. Airport officials explained that the flights left for Israel before the strike began and therefore were allowed to land. Two of the planes were El Al flights, while the other two were foreign planes.

In addition, a number of flights are expected to land in Israel on Wednesday afternoon after receiving approval from the Histadrut. A British Airways plane carrying hundreds of English soccer fans, arriving to cheer their national team at the Israel-England match Saturday, was also allowed to land.

The Histadrut also approved the landing of a flight from Brussels carrying the Belgian foreign minister arriving for a visit to Israel, as well as a flight from the Czech Republic carrying equipment for Israeli hospitals. Several El Al, Alitalia and Swiss flights were not approved, but will apparently land anyway.

Four flights have also left Israel since the strike was launched – two of them El-Al flights. One of the El-Al flights took off to New York carrying a patient on her way to a bone marrow transplant surgery. A Continental Airlines flight was also allowed to take off for medical reasons.

A flight to Amman was approved for security reasons, in order to pick up Israelis waiting at the Jordanian airport.

A source in the Histadrut said that nothing could be done to prevent the flights from landing. "What can we do, shoot them down?" he asked/

Histadrut officials said in response, "We are unaware of flights landing without approval."

Ben-Gurion Airport said it had launched an emergency number for passengers whose flights would be affected by the strike. The number is: 00972-3-9755555. Passengers can also get updates from the airport's website.

Airport employees worked intensively Tuesday night in order to allow as many flights as possible to take off before the strike. Ten flights were moved up to Tuesday evening.

Shimshon Katz, manager of the airport's service division, said that he had received approval to allow the landing of 11 flights carrying soccer fans from England. Histadrut officials, however, denied the report.

'We'll strike until last worker is paid'

After declaring that the strike would be launched as planned, Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini said the government was unwilling to promise that all local authority and religious council workers will receive their wages. The labor federation chairman left the office of Labor Court President Steve Adler, after failing to reach any progress in the negotiations.

Eini said that the Prime Minister's Office director-general, Raanan Dinur, specifically told him that the government was not certain that the money transferred to local authorities and councils in the past few days would in fact reach the workers.

Eini added that contrary to the government's announcement that all the salaries, excluding those of 600 workers, would be transferred on Tuesday evening, Dinur changed his version and said that some of the employees would only be paid on Thursday.

"We have promised to strike until the last worker receives his salary. We have has enough of maneuvers, and therefore we will launch the strike," he said.

"One must understand that this matter cannot continue. It is unthinkable that we have to threaten to launch a strike every month. A person who works must naturally receive his salary; this is what democracy is about. This time I decided to put an end to this," Eini told Israel Radio.

The government had petitioned the Labor Court, hoping it would issue an injunction against the strike, which is being held in compliance with a decision by the Histadrut in protest of the local authorities' failure to pay the wages of 3,700 workers.

Empty terminal (Photo: Yaron Brener)

As a result of the strike, which was meant to begin at 6 am but, due to the court's ruling, began at 9 am, all government ministries except for the Defense Ministry were closed to the public on Wednesday.

The Israel Railways, all ports, local authorities, the Israel Electric Company, the National Insurance Institute, the religious councils, firefighters, the Land Administration, the National Water Company, the vehicle licensing office, and all border crossings were on strike.

In an effort to make the strike less inconvenient to the public, the Histadrut said that a number of sectors would be allowed to operate.

The Bank of Israel was to release cash to refill ATMs and approve transactions, while special education facilities will be open, said Tzachi Tabakman, the general secretary of the Histadrut's professional workers branch.

In addition, the health sector, the stock exchange and the arms industry operated as usual. Post offices, banks, the national telecommunications company Bezeq, and oil refineries were also open.

Treasury: Only 1,100 workers not paid

"Until each and every one of the 3,700 employees receives his overdue wages in his bank account, we will not terminate the strike," Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini told a press conference.

Three weeks ago, Eini revoked his decision to call for a general strike after receiving assurances from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he would press the Finance Ministry to resolve the dispute over the unpaid wages.

"The prime minister promised that there would be an absolute solution. We gave ample time for the prime minister to find a solution so that there will not be a single worker in Israel … who hasn't received his wage," Eini said.

The Finance Ministry argues that there are 1,100 workers who have not been paid, charging that the Histadrut's figure of 3,700 is exaggerated.

Data collected by the Histadrut show that 16 religious councils and 36 local authorities have been withholding the salaries of 3,700 workers for over six months or more citing a lack of sufficient funds.

The Histadrut also argues that 1,400 pensioners are not receiving their pensions from local authorities.

Tani Goldstein, Tzvi Lavi, Moran Zelikovich, Meital Tzur and Yael Branovsky contributed to this report