The oppressive permit regime imposed on Palestinian workers must be abolished. When the black movement in the United States raised the slogan “let us breathe”, for us here, in our struggle for rights of Palestinian workers it was a natural…
Category: Labor
WAC-MAAN combats settlement employers to improve conditions for Palestinian workers
Sa’id Al Ghazali* On Dec. 18, 2018,Palestinian workers at NA Metal Industries, in the settlement of Mishor Adumim, declared a warning strike after the employer had refused to meet their basic demands. Eleven workers who participated in the strike…
Israeli labor leader allies with extreme Right
Mr. Avi Nissenkorn, who chairs the biggest Israeli Trade Union federation, the Histadrut, recently announced support for Ze’ev Elkin in the race for mayor of Jerusalem. Mr. Elkin serves currently as the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs in Netanyahu’s government and…
Histadrut unaffected by Arab winds of change
Ofer Eini and the Histadrut are deaf to the voices of change calling from Cairo and the Arab world. Unions around the world identify with the new forces, leaving the conservative Histadrut alone in its corner. Hussein Mugawer was recently…
Social workers’ strike: confronting a privatized state
Sunday March 20 marked an important event in the history of trade unionism in Israel. The leadership assembly of the Social Workers’ Union (SWU), which organizes some 10,000 public sector social workers, rejected the Histadrut’s offer to sign a collective…
War on Scarecrows: Steinitz at the Treasury
Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s Minister of Finance, takes no rest. We have not yet recovered from his blatant attack on the High Court of Justice (he claims that its “populist” decisions waste public money) and already we hear that he’s gearing…
Empowering the Weaker Workers in Israel, 2009
A discussion on ways to defend and organize groups of workers who are subject to exploitation and discrimination in the Israeli labor market, including Arabs, migrants, women and youth. The following is a synopsis of the talks that were given…
Abusive Employment Practices at the Israeli Antiquities Authority
Dozens working for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) at the archaeological site of Ras al-Amud near Jerusalem were summoned on January 8, 2009 by a representative of Brik, the personnel firm through which they were employed. He told them that…
The Teachers’ Strike
From the Grass Roots Up A TWO-MONTH strike of Israeli high school teachers, their longest ever, ended in December 2007 when the independent High School Teachers Organization (HSTO) reached a compromise with the government. The strike went beyond a labor…
FNV Officials Study Israel’s Labor Market
THREE OFFICIALS from FNV, the largest trade union confederation in the Netherlands, recently met with Arab women at their jobs on an Israeli farm. The jobs had been organized by the Workers Advice Center (WAC), to which the women belong.…