Labor Court Approves One Month Continuation of Negotiations Between Ports Authority, Workers; Peretz to Meet with Shochat, Mordechai
Haifa Regional Labor Court Judge Rami Cohen today decided to grant another 30-day stay in the dispute between the Histadrut and port workers, and the Ports Authority management and the government. Cohen fixed another hearing in 30 days.
The Histadrut representative announced that Histadrut chairman Amir Perez will meet the Ministers of Finance and Transport, Avraham Shochat and Yitzhak Mordechai on Sunday to discuss the dispute and attempt to find a solution. Histadrut lawyers, the workers, and the Ports Authority said that direct negotiations between the parties should continue.
Attorneys of the Histadrut and the Ports Authority agreed to extend the Haifa Regional Labor Court restraint order, issued on October 27, “in order to continue negotiations on matters in dispute”.
The court decided that the order issued a month ago would remain in force, and would be binding on the parties, until superseded by another legal decision. The order provided that the parties would enter accelerated negotiations. Concurrently the workers would halt their sanctions and the Ports Authority would suspend its planned structural changes.
The workers and the Histadrut oppose the intention to separate the ports of Haifa and Ashdod and turn them into profit centers. They also oppose the plan to set up the new Jubilee port in Ashdod through private developers.
Haim Reiten, responsible for transport in the Histadrut, told “Globes” that the judge’s suggestion was accepted, “since it enabled renewal of negotiations within a week. If Peretz’s meeting with the ministers does not lead to a breakthrough, and we see that the negotiations are going nowhere, we can return to court and request a new hearing on our demand to renew the strike in the ports”.
Ports Authority director-general Gideon Shamir expressed satisfaction with the decision. “Although the decision is liable to delay construction of the Jubilee port, I hope that in the near future, we will come to an agreement with the workers, to ease fear of changes, and to present a security network to ensure that they will not be injured”.
Manufacturers Association president Oded Tira told “Globes”, “the judge’s decision is creative, and perhaps signals a new era. A strike would be a disaster, and cause irreversible damage to plants, which will result in the loss of billions of shekels to the economy and the firing of thousands of workers”.
