Last update - 00:00 06/02/2008
Qassams succeed in chasing skilled workers from Sderot factories
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent
Rafi Cohen, manager of a plastics plant in Sderot's industrial zone, notes that his workers receive numerous breaks every day - which they would rather not have: Every time the siren goes off to warn of a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza, work stops and the workers run for shelter. Then they call their families to make sure no one was hurt.
"There are days when it happens dozens of times," he said. "The damage is enormous, and no one compensates us for it."
Nevertheless, a new study on how the Qassam fire has affected local industries paints a more complex picture. The study, conducted by Ben-Gurion University's Negev Center for Regional Development, found that since 2001, when the rocket fire began, the number of factories in the Sderot area has dropped from 80 to 69. Yet Sderot remains the second-largest industrial zone in the Negev, after Be'er Sheva, and the area's principal problem is not a lack of jobs, but a lack of skilled workers.
The Sderot industrial park employs some 2,000 people. Additional factories are located near Sapir College and in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. Once, this area was seen as commercially promising: It was close to both Ashdod Port and Tel Aviv and well-situated for a thriving trade with Gaza. But the rocket fire and the consequent severance of Israel's economic ties with Gaza have dashed those hopes.
Cohen said that his factory moved to Sderot in the late 1990s because of these advantages. "We received [government] grants, and the rent was cheap," he said. Now, he would gladly move the factory elsewhere, if he could afford it.
Yaakov Dagan, manager of a Sderot food factory, feels differently. "We're here, and we intend to stay here," he said, adding that his company will soon open a new plant in the town that will employ another 70 workers.
However, he added, the government ought to do more to help people to stay.
Cohen said the exodus of skilled workers is the most serious problem caused by the rocket fire. "In recent years, anyone who could - the strong population - left," he said. "The result is that the cost of skilled labor in the area is rising." He said he brings in workers from as far away as Be'er Sheva and Bat Yam.
Dagan agrees that the lack of skilled labor is a problem, but he does not blame the Qassams. He says it is because "today, fewer people study technological trades."