The strike at the ports of Haifa and Ashdod, now in its second week, has cost the Israeli economy NIS 130 million, the Ports and Railroads Authority said yesterday.
Gideon Shamir, the director-general of the Ports Authority, said that the strike was proving especially detrimental to the farmers, who are losing NIS 4 million a day. This week, for instance, only 2,400 tons of avocados will leave the ports, compared to the 20,000 tons a week that is normal for this season, he said.
The numbers provided by the Ports Authority indicate that port employees have been working at only 40 percent of capacity and have been avoiding overtime. Forty-two cargo ships are waiting in Ashdod, 31 of them outside the port. Twenty-five ships are waiting in Haifa, 11 of them outside the port.
The labor unions said in response that the Ports Authority “was trying to rig a case against the workers to show in Labor Court.”
Manufacturers’ Association President Oded Tyrah met yesterday with the workers’ leaders and with Histadrut labor federation representative Haim Sheib. At the meeting, Tyrah complained that export goods are arriving late at their ports of destination and that the strike was harming commercial relations with offshore customers. Also, with no end to the strike in sight, foreign companies are not signing agreements with Israeli companies, Tyrah explained.
Tyrah called for intensive negotiations between the ministers of finance and transportation, the Histadrut chair and workers’ representatives, but refused to ask Prime Minister Ehud Barak to get involved.
The government and the Ports Authority will submit their summations to the labor court tomorrow. Through attorney Nahum Feinberg, they are expected to claim that the object of the strike is to fight the government’s decision of last August to introduce reforms in the ports.
