Last update - 00:00 09/08/2007
Lifeguards, Histadrut postpone strike planned for the weekend
By Igal Hai and Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondents
The Histadrut labor federation and the National Lifeguards Association decided on Friday to postpone a strike planned for the weekend, minutes after a labor court ruled they could strike for two hours on Satuday.
The National Labor Court ruled on Friday that the strike could only go ahead between the hours of 7 A.M. and 9 A.M.
Before the strike was called off, the court ordered the local councils to place inspectors at the entrance to beaches between those hours, in order to prevent people from bathing in unsupervised waters.
The Union of Local Authorities in Israel requested Thursday that the court issue an injuction against planned strike, arguing that last weekend's strike caused the deaths of three bathers on the Netanya and Ashdod beaches.
Histadrut representative Bar David said that the decision to postpone the strike by one week was motivated by concern for the safety of the public, and by the belief in further negotiations.
"I would like to give negotiations a chance throughout the week, and I also want to ease up on the tension" between the sides, he said.
The lifeguards are protesting stalled negotiations over their salaries. They had planned to leave their posts Saturday and Sunday during the last two hours of the workday, between 5 P.M. and 7 P.M. In Rishon Letzion and Ashdod, the strike set to begin at 1 P.M. Lifeguards in Tel Aviv and Haifa are forbidden from striking.
The Israel National Lifeguards Association is demanding significant improvements to their terms of employment, specifically to the salaries of lifeguards who began work in 2000. The association is also calling for local authorities to cease employing lifeguards through contractors and manpower agencies.
The court already forbade the Tel Aviv and Haifa lifeguards last week from striking due to commitments to "industrial quiet" made in previous agreements that are still valid.