Strike cripples Israel's international airport

An unexpected strike sent Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport into chaos Monday, and the airport's employees' workers union declared a go slow.

The strike was declared after the union's wage and pension negotiations with the Treasury and Transportation Ministry had come to a standstill. Starting at 9 am, union airport personnel ceased aiding in takeoff preparations.

Massive disruptions were noted in both takeoff and landing activity and Airport spokeswoman Maayan Malkin said outgoing flights have been grounded at this time. 

Passengers at Ben Gurion Airport (Photo: Avi Mualem)  

The Israel Airport Authority (IAA) said some 12,500 were slated to leave Israel on Monday and 16,500 were expected to arrive.

Flights airborne and en route to Israel will be able to land, but travelers will not be able to collect their luggage.

By noon, thousands of passengers crowded the airport, as almost all flight schedules changes. Keeping in spirit of sorts, the IAA's website temporarily crashed after the strike was declared, but was soon made available again.

The IAA said the negotiations were ongoing in hopes of finding rapid solution to both the workers the demand and the strike. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz demanded Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz act to end the strike immediately, adding that while he was sympathetic to the workers' demands, their fight should not come at the expense of the passengers.

Chaos at the airport (Photo: Yariv Katz)

The strike came as a surprise to local airlines as well: El-Al said that it was following the situation and will update on its flight scheduled as soon as information becomes available.

Israir said that it has six flight scheduled for today, one of which took off just minutes before the strike was called. Israir too was following the situation and will update its flight scheduled accordingly.

Noon Monday saw the Israel Tourist and Travel Agents Association appeal to Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz with a request to allow airlines to use military airstrips instead of Ben Gurion's.

The strike, said the association, "Places Israel in the same group of other unreliable countries and is detrimental to the tourism industry, which is closely kinked to BGIA. Any further disruption to the airport's services will inflict serious harm on Israel's image as a tourist destination."

The Knesset's Finance Committee is also set to hold an emergency meeting Monday evening, to discuss the ramifications of the strike, should the situation remain unresolved by nightfall.

Stranded passengers, strained efforts

A small riot broke out at the airport, after hundreds of Hasidim returning from their annual pilgrimage to Uman, where they visited Rabbi Nachman of Breslov's grave, found out they would not be able to claim their baggage.

A group of them began shouting "disgrace," banging goblet drums they had with them, and even burst into an impromptu dance on the baggage conveyor, damaging it slightly. No arrests have been made.  

Jumping on the baggage conveyor (Photo: Avi Mualem)

Airport personnel later processed the Uman plane's baggage, in order to allow it to fly out, back to the Ukraine, where other Hassisim await its arrival.

The Hasidim were not the only ones upset: Tamar Glazner, who found herself grounded instead of on a flight to Amsterdam, told Ynet that she was concerned her vacation, "which I have been planning for over a year," might be compromised.

Shlomit and her partner were scheduled to fly out to Thailand this afternoon: "We've been planning this trip for ages. We don't know what to do."

Rumors of accelerated negotiations offered her little comfort: "(The union) warned of this before the holidays. Did they (IAA) have to wait for the last minute to do something? This all could have been avoided. I hope this works out sooner, rather than later."

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