Strike ends in Jerusalem as talks set for resolving budgetary issues
After Jerusalem residents again subjected to trash mountains on their streets amid redundancy protests, Ministries of Finance and Interior agree with Jerusalem Municipality to establish special team to discuss disputes over ‘capital grant’.
The Jerusalem municipality agreed Sunday to withdraw over 2,000 letters of resignation sent to its employees over budgetary grievances and halt the strike it launched on Saturday that saw piles of garbage stack up on the capital's main streets.
The Jerusalem Municipality services began staging a strike over the weekend over a decision by City Mayor Nir Barkat to fire more than two thousand workers amid a budgetary spat with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon.
With sanitation workers joining the strike Sunday morning, the city was littered with uncollected garbage cans, with boxes and waste dumped and neglected on Jerusalem's streets. Family health services were due to cease working throughout the day but educational institutions continued to operate as usual.
The decision to launch the strike was taken by the Histadrut Labor Federation over a disagreement between the Barkat and the Finance Ministry, with the former seeking to pressure Kahlon into transferring funds for an increased annual budget.
With the premature ending of the strikes, the warring sides agreed to hold discussions with government ministries within the coming 45 days and establish a special team about funding to the capital.
Following the end of the strike, Barkat praised the Histadrut Chairman Avi Nissenkorn for his intervention that brought downtown Jerusalem’s foul-smelling day to a close.
“We sat for two hours and presented him the problems and challenges in Jerusalem that require budgetary assistance,” Barkat said. “As a result, an agreement was reached with the Finance Ministry for the establishment of a joint team of the municipality and the ministry that will be overseen by the chair of the Histadrut in order to work out an outline for an agreement. I have confidence in his abilities to bridge matters and being about a solution to this crisis.”
The Jerusalem Municipality receives an increment to its budget every year dubbed the "capital grant." While other local authorities in Israel receive grants for balanced budgets, Jerusalem receives a grant stemming from its special status and needs as capital and yet of the country's poorest cities, influenced by the large incidence of poor Haredim and Arab residents.
On Barkat’s orders, the municipality petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) due to the fact the ministry was blocking the transfer of NIS 105 million it was obligated to supply as part of the “capital grant” to the municipality as part of the agreement to solve a spat over budgeting the city in 2017.
Chairman if the Municipality Workers’ Committee, Avichai Abraham announced Saturday that the strike would take place in the Pais Arena in the city, meaning that before it was called off, the scheduled Hapoel Jerusalem F.C soccer game was canceled.
Objecting to Barkat’s mass layoffs, activists from the Awaken Movement began changing the writing on placards critical of Kahlon that were hung by the Jerusalem Municipality on the prominent Chords Bridge, switching every one that contained his name to Nir Barkat.
“We have no intention of sitting idly by when Nir Barkat cynically exploits the Municipality workers, and holds captive all the Jerusalem residents as part of an immoral and personal campaign,” a spokesmen for the movement said.
“Barkat has become a burden for the city and its residents and the time has come to release them from him,” the spokesman continued. “Activists of the Awaken Movement sent a clear message this morning: Nir Barkat’s actions are harming Jerusalem and its residents and constitute a burden for the city.”
Chairman of the movement, and candidate for the next mayor Ofer Berkowitz, also sent a letter to the Director-General of the Interior Ministry Mordechai Cohen demanding that his offices force Barkat to pay out of his own pocket for all the outgoings of the campaign launched against Kahlon, which cost the Municipality around NIS 90,000.
However, all the placards were already paid for personally by Barkat, the former businessman. In addition, the letter also called on Barkat to pay for the damages caused by the strike and to cover the costs required for a return to normality.
After the announcement to call the strike off, Berkowitz spoke in equally derisory terms of Barkat. “Bravo for Barkat’s personal campaign in which he succeeded in making headlines on the back of Jerusalem’s residents without any accomplishment," Berkowitz said.
“He ran a ring around Jerusalem without suggesting any change or alternative, filled Jerusalem with piles of trash and threatened redundancies. What did he get? A team for negotiating. This is not the way to manage Jerusalem,” he continued.
The decision regarding the budget to implement the strike was never brought before the city council and was not approved.
Workers from the City Municipality announced Thursday that they would stage a general strike that would commence on Saturday night due to the announcement that 2,150 workers would be losing their jobs.
Sanitation workers didn’t wait for the official start date, launching their protest in earnest the same day as the announcement as residents quickly began to see the popular central Mahane Yehuda Market invaded by piles of garbage.
Enraged workers who had already received their redundancy notice sealed off Barkat’s offices last Thursday.
Barkat justified the layoffs on the grounds that Kahlon’s ministry, he claimed, was discriminating against the city by not increasing the annual “capital grant” despite the fact that it had soared over the last few years in dozens of other localities.
For instance, in previous years, the grant stood an NIS 700 million, which constituted NIS 200 million more than that received by the Jerusalem municipality in 2016.
Barkat stepped up pressure in his campaign with the distribution of placards on Jerusalem’s streets against Kahlon.
Last Sunday, employees of the Jerusalem municipality blocked the entrance of the Finance Ministry's offices in the capital by piling garbage near the doors, in a protest constituting one facet in the ongoing quarrel between Barkat and Kahlon over budgets for the capital.
Outside the Finance Ministry's offices, municipality employees stacked piles of garbage alongside signs saying "Kahlon gave up on Jerusalem." Despite Barkat paying for the signs out of pocket, they nevertheless carried the municipality's seal.
In response, the Finance Ministry sent letters of complaint to the police's Jerusalem District chief and the Minister of Environmental Protection Ze'ev Elkin.
"The finance minister is flagrantly flaunting the law, does not uphold government decisions and knowingly and purposely harming Jerusalem. I will not allow a political vendetta to harm the capital's residents," Barkat said, petitioning the HCJ.
The municipality said the petition was submitted due to the fact the ministry was blocking the transfer of NIS 105 million it was obligated to supply with the municipality with as part of the agreement to solve a spat over budgeting the city in 2017.
