Electric company workers postpone strike until Wed. morning
Workers stage mass walk-off to protest reforms, say strike has no time limit; power supply won't be affected.
By Sharon KedmiThe Haifa Labor Court on Tuesday ordered employees of the Israel Electric Corporation to hold off disruption of electricity supplies until Wednesday morning at 10 A.M.
The employees earlier Tuesday abandoned their posts at the majority of company installations around the country, in response to government reforms set to be introduced in the company.
The workers announced they would respect the court's order.
IEC executives have entered an emergency session to deal with the matter of the employee strike.
The chairman of the IEC's workers' committee has stated that the strikes have no time limit and that in the meantime, employees would not repair electrical malfunctions. However, they will make efforts to ensure that hospitals and security installations retain their power supply.
This week, the government approved a series of reforms dealing with the IEC, which may mean division and large-scale privatization of the company by 2013. The workers' committee met at the beginning of the week and declared plans to take organized steps against the reforms.
Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson and Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer issued a joint response to the work stoppage, saying that they were devoted to passing the reforms for the sake of the citizens of Israel, the corporation, and its employees.
As required by law, 6 months were allocated for holding negotiations between the corporation and its employees, to ensure that they would not loose any of their rights, and in order to come to an agreement with them over the reforms.
General Secretary of the professional workers branch of the Histadrut Labor Federation, Tzachi Tabakman, is expected to hold a press conference Tuesday evening as a result of the steps taken by the electric corporation workers.
According to Tabakman, "The government has come to a strategic decision to ignore workers concerns and to avoid discussions with the labor federation on all fronts. This is what happened in the local authorities' offices and in the electric corporation. The government doesn't understand what the employers have understood for a long time - that disagreements are solved only through speaking and not through decisions, or unilateral legislation."
Why Facebook Connect?
Comment on Haaretz.com articles with your Facebook login, and share your thoughts on your own wall.
- Latest
- Most Viewed
- Most Rated
- Open all
"Fire them all!", "Spoiled", "Pampered", "Parasites", "Chutzpah", WOW!!!! What exactly do you people know about it?
I'll say it again, I agree with all the previous postings, the electric company workers have alot of chuzpah to cry foul after all these years of free electricity they received. They are like parasites living off the rest of us, because it is the rest of us who are actually paying for their free electricity, it is about time the government stopped this practice of allowing the company to get away with this. We the people have the right to lower electric bills, and once the free electricity to workers is gone our bills will be lower too! So how's about a Government that is of the people, for the people and by the people for a change of pace! Fire those workers striking immediately, they will lose their free electricity and be done with it already!!
is embelematic of all that is wrong with Israel. Next comes the banks and the banking system, after them comes the corrupt histadrut, etc. etc. socialism has become fascism in Israel. socialism is a failure in Israel, it should be reformed. Judaism is the best ism for the Jewish people.
Israel needs to do what Ronald Reagan did to the air traffic controllers when they went on strike in the 1980's. If they did not return to work on a certain day, They were fired permanently. And they were, none were rehired. Israel must take a stand that no longer will the state be held hostage to monopolistic workers.
should come down on the IEC and all of it's worker's if power is shut off to the country.
Hardly surrprising is it, what ? they should give up free electricity the biggest wages in the country and all at the publics exspense. Reforms , re orgaination is long over due for one the bigest monoply of them all. Feel sorry for them ? i dont think so.
The citizens of Israel are fed up with the IEC workers. We've been paying for their freeloading for far too long. If we had leadership with fortitude, they would negotiate a new contract stipulating that any illegal walkoffs are met with layoffs for IEC workers. IEC workers' salaries will be checked to make sure that those who double bill (as Ha'aretz documented a few months ago) for overtime are fired, and sued for repayment. IEC workers will get a very generous 5 percent discount on their electricity bill. The hundreds of millions of shekels of savings will then be passed on to us, the fryars who have been footing the bill.
He gets free electricity in his house, he has a thousand appliances running at the same time and he has no bills to pay, good deal right??? I pay, my neighbors pay out the nose, they have three young kids and are always in overdraft, they are Israel's poor. Israel's electric company should be privatized so bad that it hurts. Those f'n bastards have had it too good for too long. DOWN WITH THE FASCISTS!!!!AMEN!
They certainly have chutzpah don't they? All these years that they were given free electricity just for working for the company;while the rest of us had to deal with larger bills because of them.I don't feel bad for them at all, it is good their free rides will end and they can pay like the rest of us,because in rality it was the rest of us who were actually paying the bill for their free electricity anyway. There is no electricity company in the world that gives its employees free power, and they should have stopped that policy years ago. So let the spoiled electricity employess cry because frankly my dear I don't give a damn, and if my power goes off, I can sue for breach of contract if it is not repaired in a reasonable amount of time!
Stop the paychecks.Sell the company.These electric company workers are again holding the country at ransom.Fire all that are not at work starting with the leaders of the works committees.Bring in private contractors -even from overseas- but do not allow these pirates to continue thier system of demands.The workers must realise that electricity is not the domain of a few.The corruption of the country allows them to do as they wish.Give the jobs to the unemployed but with contracts and not workers of I E C.Eventually the electricity will be fare to all and not the mafia of I E C
THE most pampered work sector in Israel, yet they rebel at any sign that they should return to the norm in the country.