What's the best kind of strike? The kind that never takes place. The kind whose mere threat of actually taking place causes the other side to fold. And what is the best kind of threat? The kind that is not mentioned.
This was the kind of threat made by Stanley Fischer. He never even uttered a threat, but got the job done yesterday. He threw the entire political system into a spin, and forced the prime minister to intervene, sent the finance minister to the governor of the Bank of Israel, and forced Eli Cohen, who is in charge of wages, to freeze the letter on the hearing he had sent to Bank of Israel employees earlier this week.
So why is this a particularly good threat? Because it has not come to an end. Not even yesterday. The two sides did agree to embark on immediate, intensive negotiations that will last several days (they started last night), at the end of which a new wage agreement will be signed. But if the deal is not signed in a few days, the threat will return to the center of a dramatic press conference - which has been postponed. Not canceled. In other words, the sword has not been restored to its sheath; it is dangling over the head of Ehud Olmert, because the last thing the prime minister needs right now is for the governor to quit.
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Fischer walked on the edge and succeeded. He did not really mean to resign, but the threat that wasn't did the trick. Yesterday he also succeeded to prove that he has a positive reputation in the capital market. The stock market began dropping immediately after rumors of his intention to resign started floating, and resumed its upward trend when the rumors turned out to have been premature.
And all this is happening when, objectively speaking, Eli Cohen is in the right. Because even now, following certain concessions by the Bank of Israel employees, their terms of employment are excessive. There are none like them in the civil service, and therefore there is a need for a more fair arrangement that falls in line with a single norm for the entire civil service. The fact is that Attorney General Menachem Mazuz supports Cohen.
But on the other hand, Fischer deserves a little pity. He came to the Bank of Israel nearly two years ago not to fight with the union and the Finance Ministry over overtime and vacation days. He came to get the law of the Bank of Israel passed, carry out a structural reform in the institution, bolster the monetary policy and improve the bank supervision system. And here he is now, spending his time in discussions over wages and promotions.
The bank employees declared a strike yesterday, joining a long list of striking unions in the country. They have joined the high-school teachers, the university students and faculty, the port workers in Ashdod and the National Insurance Institute employees. These days, every problem and every dispute ends in a strike. Nothing less. Because everyone smells the government's weakness. Everyone is smelling that there is blood in the water
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