Starting Friday, all railway development and maintenance work will halt as railway workers protest a government decision to privatize the rail service, the railway workers union announced Thursday. The railway workers said it was not their intention to cause any harm to the traveling public, but that they had no choice as long as management refused to return to the negotiating table. Trains will run as scheduled, but all development and maintenance operations – including major upkeep work on the Haifa-Kiryat Motzkin-Nahariya line – will cease completely.

Reforms announced by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz at a press conference last Monday will privatize the rail service by splitting up the current company, Israel Railways, into three subsidiaries responsible for maintenance, cargo, and real estate development, respectively. Avi Edri, general secretary of the transport workers union, was quoted in saying, “We have opted to respond to management’s intransigence in a proportional manner. It is not our aim to adversely affect the Israeli public.”