Israel general strike enters second day, talks failed

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Israel general strike enters second day, talks failed

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Histadrut and finance ministry failed again to resolve their dispute over contract workers rights.

12 February,2012 12:55 pm

A general strike in Israel entered its fifth day on Sunday after late-night talks between trade unions and the government failed again to resolve their differences.The two sides were to report on the status of their negotiations to the national labour court later on Sunday, which will decide whether to allow the strike to continue.Uncollected rubbish was piling up on streets. Many drivers of the national bus corporation joined the strike, disrupting travel on the first day of the Israeli working week.We hope it will end as soon as possible, Jihad Akl, manager of the Histadrut trade union confederations situation room, told public radio.Histadrut and finance ministry representatives failed again late Saturday to resolve their dispute over the rights of contract workers, who have lower salaries than full-time colleagues and few benefits, and can be fired without notice.Ben Gurion international airport, railways and harbours were open on Sunday, but government offices, banks and the stock exchange kept up the open-ended strike.The issue of contract workers has been simmering for months, with the Histadrut staging a four-hour strike in the same dispute in November.It wants to see contract workers receive the same benefits as others, and has called on the government to hire some of the contract workers as full employees.The government says it is willing to make some concessions on the status of contract workers but that it would be economically disastrous to offer them all the same rights as permanent staff.