The Histadrut labor federation laid the groundwork Monday for an airlines strike, declaring a labor dispute in all Israeli airlines: El Al, Arkia and Israir less than 24 hours after a port workers’ strike ended. The Histadrut also declared labor disputes at the Israel National Roads Company, Educational Television (Channel 23) and the Petah-Tikva Municipality on Monday, all of them in protest at the use of outside contractors and partial privatization.

The Histadrut said the declaration was made in response to the Civil Aviation Authority’s decision to sign an “Open Skies” agreement with the European Union. Such an agreement would allow any European airline to land in Israel from anywhere within the 27 EU member countries at any time.

According to the Histadrut, neither party has consulted with workers on the impending deal. It claimed that if left in its current format, the agreement would damage the competitiveness of Israel’s aviation industry and put at risk the jobs of the 7,000 workers employed by El Al, Arkia and Israir and the 25,000 workers employed directly through the aviation sector.

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz responded immediately to the Histadrut declaration, saying he had instructed the Civil Aviation Authority earlier Monday not to sign an Open Skies deal before properly examining the ability of Israeli airlines to deal with it. The CAA, formerly known as the Civil Aviation Administration, was transformed into a statutory authority within the Transportation Ministry in 2005.

This latest labor dispute follows a wave of workers’ strikes. Workers at the Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat ports held a one-day strike over pension-related demands Sunday. Railway workers walked off the job for two days on February 13-14 to protest management’s use of outside contractors. A general strike was held February 8-12 over the employment status of contract workers in the public and private sectors.