The Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) announced that it will be convening tomorrow, Wednesday, December 16, to set the date for the start of a general strike in the public sector. This latest move follows the breakdown of talks between the Ministry of Finance and the Histadrut on a salary hike for public sector employees. The talks are deadlocked and at present there seems no likelihood that the sides will reach any agreement.

Histadrut Chairman Avi Nissenkorn and Treasury Minister Moshe Kahlon (Photo: Histadrut)

On Sunday, Histadrut Chairman Avi Nissenkorn said that he planned to call the strike after negotiations on public sector wages failed to produce results. On November 25, Nissenkorn announced a labor dispute on the subject, opening the door for a strike as of December 9th. In the interim, he also threatened to announce a general labor dispute – also on December 9 – over unrelated reforms on long-term care insurance and pensions. While the Finance Ministry agreed to postpone planned reforms and negotiate an adequate solution on that latter front, thereby eliminating the threat of a general strike, talks over public sector wages continued. Any strike action will likely include government employees, civilian employees of the military, teachers organized in the high school teachers union, nurses and auxiliary hospital staff, social workers, and local authority employees. More meetings will be held before tomorrow in efforts to avert a strike action.

“The wages in Israel are too low, and that is one of the primary reasons for the terrible statistics we saw in the last poverty report,” Nissenkoren said, referring to the recent National Insurance Institute report that indicated 1.7 million Israelis were living in poverty last year. “Wages must be increased immediately. It is imperative,” Nissenkorn said. Public sector wages, he noted, have not increased for three years.