Cairo: Israel’s ports are braced for strikes in two weeks time as prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dogged pursuit of creating private competition along the nation’s coastline meets resistance. The Histadrut labour federation on Monday declared a labour dispute at the Haifa and Ashdod ports after hitting a deadlock in talks the government.
Histadrut Chairman Ofer Eini demanded that Netanyahu suspend the international tenders that the government published two weeks ago for building and operating competing ports in the two cities.
"We are not opposed to the principle of reform and the development of new privately operated ports," the labour federation said in a statement. "But we expected the government to agree with us not to infringe on the salary conditions or job security of veteran port workers, as well as to ensure the rights of workers employed at the new ports." [16/07/13]
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