Dismissed en masse, workers from south demonstrate in Tel Aviv
Following layoffs that employees say will wreak destruction on south's economy and families, workers gather at CEO's residence, accuse PM of running away.
Hundreds of Israel Chemicals employees who have been handed dismissal notices demonstrated Monday in Tel Aviv, outside the home of company CEO Stefan Borgas.
Scores of Israel Chemicals employees received letters of dismissal in recent weeks, after the company announced a streamlining program that would include the firing of 300 out of 800 Bromine Compounds employees.
The workers have protested in various locations around Israel in recent weeks in an attempt to prevent the dismissals, arguing that the government has forsaken them and will cause an economic collapse in the Negev region.
Backed Monday by the Histadrut labor federation and the Dror-Israel educational movement, the protestors waved Israeli flags and chanted slogans criticizing Borgas. They also attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, shouting: "Netanyahu is disconnected from the south; he ran away to America instead of taking care of the workers whose entire world has collapsed."
Over 140 people were laid off from Israel Chemicals' Bromine Compound factory in the southern Negev region last month. Thousands in southern Israel went on strike over the move.
On Monday, protesting workers handed out flyers that read: "Sending home hundreds of employees in the south means sending hundreds of family into poverty. The chance of finding a new job in this area is zero. For the workers and for the south as a whole, this is a deaths sentence. This is the time to fight. Together we can save the workers and save the south. Join the fight!"
"I am one of the people who were informed that their position had become redundant, and that I was slated to be fired," said Lev, 56, an employee of Bromine Compounds. "I worked there for 30 years. I have three children. We are determined to strike until the layoffs are rescinded. They are giving us dismal pensions. If they had come to us in an upright manner and promised a fair pension, we would have agreed. We brought many millions to the company, and we want fairness."
Kobi, a coworker, described a gloomy situation. "I'm angry. I am a manager there. I have employees with seven children and without any food. We were the pillar of the south and now they are trying to destroy us."
"We have become pawns of the tycoons," said Zamir Eliezer, who has worked at the Dead Sea Works for 36 years. "After 30 years, they tell me that they can suddenly do without my services, but at the same time I hear people are being congratulated for being hired in senior positions."
Avner Ben Senyor, chairman of the Bromine Compounds workers council, was among the participants in the protest. "They are taking revenge on us workers in order to hurt the government. They want to fire 140 workers as a first step, then later 300, and eventually up to 1,000," he said.
"We are against collective layoffs; we are in favor of streamlining and early retirement. To the prime minister I say: We are very disappointed in Bibi, who decided to run away to Washington before taking care of the burning problem in the Negev."
Zionist Union MK Merav Michaeli arrived to support the workers. "The workers' fight is important," she said. "This is a test case of greed, abuse of power and natural resources that belong to the entire Israeli public.
"It's an attempt to break organized labor and throw people out on the street, despite the fact that this is a company that made billions in 2014, and from which stockbrokers got dividends. They still allow themselves to throw people out on the street. We cannot allow the company and the government to do this."
