The Histadrut labor federation announced Thursday that Israel Railway workers will stage strikes throughout the coming week. According to the Histadrut, trains will stop running throughout the country on Wednesday.

The decision to stop rail traffic was taken after month-long negotiations between the Histadrut and Israel Railways made no progress on the issue of privatizing maintenance work on new rail cars.

“It seems even at the highest levels, management is not ready to accept any offer we’ve made and it is insisting on bringing contract workers,” Public Transportation Workers Union head Avi Edery said. The measure will eventually result in the closing of Israel Railways’ maintenance network and weaken the power of its employees. Canada’s Bombardier Inc. is due to manage the new rolling stock maintenance system, and it has already been effectively promised this as part of the tender to supply rolling stock to Israel Railways.

The Histadrut says that, not only would the measure harm employees, it would also waste money, since Bombardier would have to set up new garages instead of using existing resources. “We offered to meet all the target and productivity demands, and we offered to review the compliance with these goals after a period to be determined. Regrettably, the Ministry of Finance and Israel Railways chairman refuse,” said Edery.