The Haifa Labor Court ruled at the end of last week that for every hour of strike or sanctions conducted by the Haifa port workers from now on, they will each be personally fined NIS 1,000.

In addition, after 12 hours of striking, the fine will rise to NIS 1,500 an hour per worker.

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The ruling came on a petition by the port's management, asking the Labor Court to rule that the workers and the Histadrut Labor Federation in the Haifa region were in contempt of court by not following a previous court ruling.

The earlier ruling, from the previous Friday, ordered workers not to interfere with the proper running of the port. However, according to the port management, the employees continued to seriously disrupt port operations even after the court's ruling on the matter.

The Histadrut ordered the employees back to work immediately, but claimed that there had been no real strike at the port, and only explanatory meetings were held by the union with workers, which lasted only an hour or two.

However, the Histadrut did admit that the judge had given workers "a yellow card with a certain amount of justice."