On Wednesday, December 4, the Histadrut Labor Federation rescinded its threat of a general strike after reaching an agreement with the presidents of Business Organization employers’ umbrella group to raise the minimum wage from NIS 4,300 a month to NIS 5,000 ($1,260) a month, or NIS 27 an hour. The general strike, which was scheduled to begin on Sunday, December 7, would have shut down schools, factories, public transportation, the Ben Gurion airport, and government offices.

Demonstrators in front of the right-wing, neo-liberal Likud party headquarters in Tel-Aviv on Wednesday demanding a minimum wage of NIS 30 an hour. (Photo: Minimum 30)

The Histadrut had originally demanded an increase to the minimum wage of NIS 5,300 a month, the equivalent of about NIS 30 ($7.5) an hour. Despite Wednesday’s agreement, Hadash MK Dov Khenin announced that he would attempt to advance legislation to raise the minimum wage to the original, higher level. While calling the struck agreement “progress,” Khenin pledged to advance such a bill before the current Knesset is dispersed. “We cannot give up on advancing this bill,” he said. “I intend to fight for it now in a meeting with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and the faction heads. In the Knesset, we have a majority for the minimum wage bill, and we must now insist that this majority be expressed in a plenary vote as early as next week.”

The Histadrut’s demands had also included that the government set a minimum quota for hiring people with disabilities, a policy the cabinet approved last week, as well as for improvements in the conditions of contract workers. As a result of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s firing of Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Tuesday evening and his move to call early elections, the agreement will not apply to government workers, as all talks between the labor unions and the government have been frozen until further notice.