with the government and its "leaders" in control of everthing. That's why there's so much anarchy and disorder in this country. No other country in the world has as many strikes as Israel does. It's time for Israel to become a capitalist state with most of these offices that are always striking to become private businesses and investments with little or no gov't control.

when Israel needs tourists, this is what happens...... Is our economy in enought s**t as it is. I ask the government...do you have money to burn??? People work and expect to be paid, without having to turn the country into chaos...we have enough troubles, with adding oil to burning waters. What about not paying the MK's, Olmert, Peretz etc...now if they went on strike.......enough said!

Sooner or later IDF officers and police and Shabak will go on strike, and that will be the end of the State of Israel.

No one is reporting this except one small item in JP. The unpaid workers are almost all in the Arab sector & they are not paid because Arabs won't pay Arnona. So they want the gov't to give them more money. My opinion is that the strike is so Labour can buy votes from the Arab sector. This has NOTHING to do with workers rights .....it's just our usual corrupt & crappy political system at work. But we all get to pay for it, right? The Histadrut should be dismantled & if the Arab municipalities want to pay their employees, than they can collect municipal taxes to do it. And Labour stinks!

I love these ignorant talkbacks with no knowledge of any context whatsoever except for predetermined political bias. This strike is not to raise the wages of the airport workers or the staff of the National Insurance Institute. It is a basic show of solidarity with the employees of local authorities who continue to work without being paid. Would the ideological firebrands commenting here have been prepared to work as firemen or social workers in the north during the war in the summer and still not be paid? I don't think so. Personally, if the strike continues, this may screw up a business trip I have next week to Africa. That will not be at all good, but basic humanity and some vestige of Jewish values and solidarity (with all of our Israeli citizens) has to be maintained. Netanyahu's dead hand can still be felt on the tiller of the ship of state.

This is exactly how strikes should be done, this is real democracy. Where unions have real power. Not the American kind where you get fined $1 million a day and arrested for protesting and where unions are mostly toothless, sort of like in the old USSR. Show them upon whom things depend and who really makes the system run - the working people.

I do not know what the root cause of their non payment is ? Is it inability to pay or unwillingness ? Or perhaps the local authorities never tried to collect I do know that anyone who wants work in Israel should be able to find it, albeit in the undesired construction sector

Compared to US labor, Israeli labor is tough as hell. Can you imagine the whole US labor force going on strike to support UPS drivers for example, or auto workers? Good thing it's not summer though. When I lived in Haifa the Histadrut had a few strikes, and within a couple days the trash would pile up, spilling out of the dumpsters for the street cats to spread all over the place. Strikes in summer always smelled so much worse than strikes in winter; leaving the trash out in the hot sun would quickly turn Israel into a stinking hellhole. In fact that was probably the strikers' best weapon-- they knew the public would be begging for mercy in a few days!

If Terry is right, let's have some courageous soul from the Histadruit or govenrment confirm this or at least explain the strike. Or perhaps the same idiots in the police who let one of our most wanted escape planned a period of labor peace as well? And perhaps our brilliant Minister of Defence, as a sign of his support of his governement, as he did in Lebanon, did his best to make sure there was not a strike. In short, this is pathetic at its worst....

For the first time in memory, powerful unions are going to bat for the disempowered. Those affected by the stoppage should cool off; tomorrow they may be in need of this kind of solidarity. And let's not make this into an object lesson in what a horrible country we are. Public-service strikes are common around the world, outside of the U.S. Finally, when the sides work out a settlement, it must include -- on the government's end -- a way to (1) collect taxes from recalcitrants and (2) eliminate redundant and unnecessary public-service positions.

I ask you is the government really suffering because of the strike, the answer is the usual no.Instead it is the innocent civilians living here who are left to suffer, we are recovering from a war and this is no time for Histradrut to strike. Get theses workers their due wages without the strike,sue the government in court. But let the people get on with their lives, we need our government services to run smoothly inorder to recover further from the war!

"Everything here is ridiculous. It's all too governmental. If the things would have been thought through, this strike would not have been happening. These things are typical to Israel and this is the reason it looks the way it is," he said. ====== I absolutely cannot believe that!!! With so many American airlines going through bankruptcy, with stories every holiday about long delays at American airports, how can this countryman of mine complain about Israel????