Finance minister, Histadrut chair meet in attempt to end strike

Time to get move to the next stage of a modern economy. Break the Unions. Time to introduce individual rights to negotiate and unions to become optional, not mandatory. It's been done elsewhere in New Zealand for example and after the initial wolf-cries, the world moves on without a few holding the country to ransom and we all become more productive and responsible for ourselves and each other.

eini is a Hebrew word which means I do not For example - I do not care that my rediculous strike is costing the country hundreds of millions of shekels a day. I do not care that I am probably causing hotel workers to lose their jobs I do not care that there will be no money to pay for proper bomb shelters. I do not care about people who have worked hard all year to pay for a holiday and now cannot take it.

Well said Ralph - It is not the government that pays - it is the private sector who has to bear the cost of the bloated public sector. Yes the histadrut has taken care of us - they have just negotiated a deal whereby private sector workers will now get equality with the public sector who have been receiving bloated pension contributions for years - and guess where the extra employers contributions will come from - thats right there will be no pay rises in the private sector for the next few years as what we would have got will now go to fund the extra contributions. so in the space of one week the Histadrut negotiates away the private sector workers pay rises for the next few years and then comes out with his rediculous demands.

Demagogery? We'll leave that to the government. Or didn't you notice that the negotiations DO NOT INCLUDE Electric Co. workers?????

Have Mr. Olmert become Finance Minister: he'll agree to anything and the strike will be over!

Nomanitive and vocative plural of anus is 'ani' The accusative plural case would be "anos" A reasonable Latin translation of 'Eini', "don't form a plan", might be constructed from the singular imperative case 'eni' with a contracted 'ex' prefix :

I do not know where Ace lives. He states Mercaz. i do not know what he buys but I do know that there is inflation and all workers have to be comsensated but in a correct manner and under the wage agreements with the government. No one can tell me that the price of eggs has not risen ecause it has, so has bread, so has milk and electricitity has gone throeugh the roof. Plus our Arnona has risen by 15% over this year. I do not know how they measure it but my gas has gone up too from 5.20 per liter to 6.2 our neft is now 4.5 shekels per liter compared to 2.8 3 years ago and if that is not inflation please tell me what is? So low paid workers do deserve to be compensated and must be but under an accord and for the benifit of all.

All Chevrat Chashmal workers not only have air-conditioners, but run them 24 hours a day for free. That amounts to much more than 10% of salary. Instead of asking speculative give the actual numbers: average wages, growth over 6 years etc.

New workers of any value won't join up, middle level workers will find themselves increasingly unable to meet the needs of the clients (as one person will be doing the work of three) and skilled, more senior workers will leave. Most slots will be filled by "temps", who are one step above slave labor. This suits the politicians just fine - and we have seen often enough how often they and their family members have DIRECT FINANCIAL INTERESTS in the "temp" meat market (think about the importers of foreign laborers). I wonder what proportion of the people slamming the union on this talkback have air conditioning - and how that compares to the proportion of workers on strike.

Can someone tell me what an individual worker was earning in 2001 and what his wages are now? If current entry level wages are too low people will not join that government employer.

If Israel was stricken with runaway inflation over the last several years and salaries eroded significantly, perhaps the histadrut would have something to moan about. But the last 5 years has seen a sum total of 0% inflation on the shekel, including negative inflation last year (i.e. a built-in raise for all workers) So what are they suddenly complaining about ? Amir Peretz held the record for calling the most strikes amongst all the world's countries. When he got done trying to ruin the economy, he did a pretty good job of ruining Israel's military deterrence. I guess Eini is an Amir Peretz wannabee.

Yes, employees have the right to strike, but in most cases they do not realize that they will loose more than they will gain if the strike lasts more than a day. Realistic negotiation is the only way to resolve issues, whether it be employee/employer or for peace and prosperity. The other Right that should be considered, is that of the one whose job, business or simply travel plans are disrupted because of strike action, have to litigate agains the strikers. The hotel worker who has been sent home, has lost wages s/he should be able to recover, the factory worker who looses a day's wage because they cannot work, the soldier who has to take alternate transportation home should be able to be seek reimbursement for the additional transportation costs and compensation for the inconvenience caused by the strike, that in addition to any travellers who have had to incur additional costs and inconvenience because flights are cancelled or border crossings closed. So let the LITIGATION begin

Thanks to the Histradut I have been informed that my friends who work in hotels has been told to go home as the tourist that had booked in there have now cancelled. Well done! Looking after workers rights I thought was the purpose of the Histradut. Now who will feed those families. My wife works for a mojor factory who have also been informed that a visiting delegation from a prospective customer has now cancelled their visit. They are staying in France and who can blame them. Well done the Histradut for helping our factories to lose money and to fire workers. Our son now cannot get home by train from serving the country. He is based in Shifta and if he is lucky it will take him 10 hours to get to Nahariya instead of 3. Thank you the Histradut for making the lives of our soldiers even harder.

Not the electric company workers, or bank workers or garbage collectors with their huge salaries. No one would object if minimal wage earner get rise. It's workers nobility with their fat salaries, who live off the other people labor - it's them who causing real outrage.

Many of the folk for whom Eini is battling earn less than the minimum wage. The ever-smiling Roni Bar-On offered a munificent 1% wage inrease, versus the 10% increase that was being requested by the Histradut. That is the basis of the strike. The strike has more than enough justification of its own, and the false, irrelevant comparison to slashing of eduction and health budgets is simply manipulation used for obstructing the truth.

How to stop the monopoly & related corruption of the public sector? In my opinion all public companies should be sold to private investors. This could stop the corruption & monopoly. Healthy competition could start this way.

It is a fact that workers have a right to fight in order to improve their living conditions. It does not matter how much suffering their fight causes to inocent people, as long as their fight is legitimate and they have the organised power to fight to the end. Unfortunately it seems that our democracy recognises only fight, power and suffering as legitimate ways to achieve a goal. That this is so is proven by the fact that the government accepts losses of 800 million NSH/day of strike till they will reach, because for sure they will reach, an agreement with the strikers. Lastly our Kneset has not approved a bill foreseeing only 150 millionNSH/Year (not per day) as aid for the holocaust survivers in need! The conclusion is clear: the right of the workers for a better living will prevail while the right of the holocaust survivers to a decent death will not. The reason is that the survivers are too old and that they do not have the organised power to fight. HELP THEM TO DIE DECENTLY.

That is to say 1 anus 2 eini perhaps!! Yesterday Good Jews fasted in mourning for the destruction of the Temple. Today Good ISRAELIS should fast in mourning for the destruction of our ECONOMY by Eini & his "New Histadrut" GOONS

Does it all boil down to two government offficials say so? I think they just want a vacation-now they are on strike in the height of the summer season. They just gave themselves and the entire country a forced leave of absence from work. Now the entire economy will suffer instead of just government workers! Why give Israel a bad image during the height of tourist and aliyah arrivals? We made aliya during a general strike and had to wait six weeks before we got our teudat zehut and our lift. Everyone has the right to a higher wage, but if you are taking it out of your child's education or health-was it worth it?