Last update - 00:00 28/02/2007
When is it a good time to strike?
By Haaretz Editorial
If the Histadrut labor federation is unable to fight for the payment of salaries to local authority employees, then it is highly doubtful that it even has a right to exist. If the prime minister and the interior minister are unable to solve the problem, both in terms of principle and management, and make the heads of the local authorities function properly, then they should not be in their positions. It does not matter whether the employees of the religious councils are too many, or whether a rehabilitation program is necessary: so long as they are civil service employees they must receive their wages on time. Just like the wages of those ministers whose ministries are superfluous are not held back, neither should the wages of workers hired to carry out tasks considered unnecessary by many be withheld.
But the strike in support of the local authority employees, which was scheduled to take place today, is just the tip of the iceberg of this struggle over wages, which will likely disrupt order throughout the country in the coming weeks.
On this matter there are two worldviews. One says that economic growth cannot benefit only the powerful and the wealthy; when the economy is growing, it's a sign that the time has come to raise the wages of civil servants and narrow the widening social gaps, to which the chief of police imputes criminal and violent activity. Social workers, nurses, doctors, teachers, clerks - all those who form the basis of society - should not be living in poverty in a country that is not poor.
The opposing worldview says that if wage agreements are opened for negotiation and civil servant wages increase, the condition of the economy will immediately deteriorate and harm everyone. Subscribers to this viewpoint speak of rehabilitation that will result in favorable returns. The teachers will receive higher wages if they agree to a reform. Until then, they are stuck with their pathetic salaries. But the implementation of the reforms is also up to the government, and the ministers' salaries are not harmed even if they fail to carry out the reforms.
Even if teachers' salaries are increased by 50 percent, they will still earn less than the average wage in the country. Therefore, the proposal for a 20 percent raise may sound excessive, but those who see it that way earn a great deal more.
It is very easy to empathize with a strike that demands payment of the minimum wage at local authorities. But according to polls, few are willing to support a strike aimed at improving public sector wages and to implement the same adjustment that prime ministers and finance ministers have promised to carry out when the economy improved. A strike is a forceful and unpleasant tool, which certainly does not improve the image of the workers who become hated by those directly harmed by the strike. The strike of employees of the Israel Electric Corporation is not the same as a strike whose objective is to pay fair wages to civil servants. The people in the strike are the same people, the Histadrut is the same Histadrut, and the nuisance to the public is the same nuisance, but there are just strikes and there are those that are unjust. Yesterday's decision to cancel the strike is no reason to end the dialogue between the two sides. The prime minister cannot relinquish his responsibility in resolving this matter.