It's come to this...
Good evening from JFK airport in New York. I'm on my way home.
Unfortunately, my blog is not allowing me to post pictures right now (if I can add one later I will), or I would post a screen cap I took from the Ben Gurion Airport arrivals website from October 27 (now added). Were I to post it, you would see that the present 'crisis' involving El Al's pilots playing games with the rules goes back a lot longer than the last week or so that it has been in the news. In fact, tomorrow will be my 14th El Al flight of the year, and at least seven of those flights have been an hour or more late. El Al is
last in the world in on-time flight performance, and no, it's
not because of security.
So it's come to this....
In light of the situation, El Al has announced a temporary change of
policy, and will allow customers to cancel tickets for a full refund
without incurring a penalty. The change will be in effect on all El Al
flights scheduled through November 30, and will also allow passengers
to reschedule flights free of charge.
Seven El Al officials
resigned in recent days because of the crisis, including the chief
pilot, Ido Sharon, and the fleet managers and chief pilots of a number
of El Al fleets, Channel 2 reported on Sunday night.
Sources close to El Al management revealed to The Jerusalem Post
that a solution to the crisis is not expected soon, unless there is an
intervention by a third party, such as the government, the labor
courts or even the Histadrut labor federation.
MK Eitan Cabel,
chairman of the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, dubbed the
goings-on “a crisis” on Sunday, and will convene an emergency session
of the committee on Thursday. Cabel announced that he will be meeting
the representatives of the pilots and the management, separately,
before the committee meets.
Meanwhile, both sides remain adamant in their positions and continue playing a blame game while fighting for public opinion.
“Unfortunately,
El Al pilots are continuing their outrageous behavior. Seventeen
captains and 16 first officers refused to man a flight, causing damage
to the company, clients and fellow El Al employees,” an El Al
representative said on Sunday.
The El Al pilots committee, on
the other hand, lays the full blame on the management and denies the
allegations against the pilots. In a statement issued by the committee
on Sunday, the committee said, “[El Al] management is harming hundreds
of passengers tonight. Flights were canceled despite there actually
being enough pilots ready and available to man them.”
Indeed the
pilots are available to fly, but pilots are only willing to man
flights in one direction and demand being flown back in business class.
The
common practice in El Al, and indeed in every major airline, is for
pilots to fly the aircraft in both directions. If pilots are only
willing to work on one direction, it means El Al has to dispatch two
crews with every flight, paying double the number of work hours as well
as for the non-working crew’s business class fares.
Until last
week, El Al management begrudgingly accepted this practice in order to
keep things running smoothly. Eventually, however, with no resolution
to the dispute in sight, the airline decided to take a harder line.
The article goes on to say that the pilots work 75-85 hours per month. For which they are
well-paid.
In documents submitted to the Tel Aviv Regional Labor Court last week,
it was revealed that the average El Al flight captain’s monthly salary
was NIS 96,756, with the average pilot’s salary being NIS 94,832. Both
had seen constituted increases compared with the previous year.
The
wage increases came with an increase in work hours as well, going up
to an average of 81 hours a month as of June 2016, compared with 74 as
of December 2016.
Note that's an
average wage. At an exchange rate of NIS 3.80 or so to the dollar.... you can do the math. It's a heck of lot more than most Israelis make - many multiples.
On other airlines, pilots fly the aircraft in both directions. But they work in both directions. Not El Al.
Grrr.
Labels: El Al, Histadrut, Labor court
And again: It's a travel day
Greetings from Ben Gurion Airport, where the Histadrut (may they dissolve speedily and in our times) has ruined my night's sleep by calling a general strike. The strike postponed my 7:35 am departure to 6:05 pm, which means I would miss my European connection. So my travel agent got me on the 10:00 am flight, which is leaving at 5:00 am. That's less than an hour from now, and I'm actually going to the gate in a few minutes.
In the meantime, within the last hour, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon caved to the blackmailers (as all of his predecessors have done) and reached a deal which gives them
even more taxpayer money. So this is also going to cost my pocket.
The Histadrut has to be the only labor federation in the world that still strikes without a strike vote, and can shut down the entire country. Back in the late 90's Haim Ramon (you can search that name in the blog) became head of the Histadrut with the goal of shutting it down. Along the way, he lost interest, and he was replaced by Amir 'Comrade' Peretz (the name should tell you enough, but you can search that one in the blog too), who brought the organization back to its former 'glory.'
I hate the Histadrut. Not just because I'm a political conservative, but
because I've never seen a group of government workers that's more
sleazy and self-interested. When I worked in government (yes, I did from
1994-98) we used to have a collection for everyone to throw out their
requests to join together. Every professional in the agency refused to
join....
Have to go board my plane and get some sleep, but since I now have five hours in Europe instead of 2.5, I should have more from there.
Sorry - could not embed a picture.
Labels: Amir Peretz, Haim Ramon, Histadrut
What could go wrong?
The so-called 'gap' in construction labor could be filled in by employers voluntarily paying living wages so that Jews would be more likely to be willing to fill the positions in question. That would be the best scenario. It's not like the construction contractors are starving.
It could also be filled with legal temporary residence permits for people from countries with little or no history of overstaying visas (e.g. Philippines and Thailand).
Allowing Gazans to work here opens a Pandora's box for terrorism that has largely been closed for the last 12-14 years.
In the meantime, the Histadrut Labor Federation (think of the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters and the Mafia all rolled into one) has started a campaign to raise the minimum wage, which would only drive the cost of employment in the construction industry up further and increase the salaries that would be demanded by manual labor-averse Jews, ensuring that no one other than Arabs would take the positions for the salaries offered.
This is crazy.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Histadrut, illegal immigration, Israeli economy
Someone please tell me I'm going to get home for Rosh HaShanna
My father z"l (of blessed memory), whose grave I am about to go visit, used to say that in Israel, half the country was always on strike, and the other half was always watching. He said this back in the late 70's when it happened much more often than it does today. But today,
it seems to be happening again.
Unions representing government workers stepped up their work
sanctions in support of Israel Post Office employees, who are protesting
an efficiency plan they say is likely to get many of them fired. On
Sunday, Israel's courts were effectively closed until further notice, as
court workers refused to accept petitions, complaints, and other
paperwork from citizens.
In addition, workers at border crossings began preventing the
transfer of packages and goods through Israel's eastern and northern
borders. That work action mostly affects Palestinian Authority Arabs,
who import and export goods via the bridge crossings into and out of
Jordan.
Meanwhile, sanctions that were begun last week continued
on Sunday. Tax Authority offices were closed to the public, and
Israelis who owe back taxes can only pay via credit card over the
Internet (penalties and interest, of course, will apply to late payers,
despite the lack of service).
Airports Authority workers held a wildcat strike Thursday morning
that affected 58 departures and arrivals, with 8,000 passengers
experiencing serious delays.
Meanwhile, post offices in most parts of the country are continuing
their strike. The labor disputes surround demands by workers that none
of their number be fired as part of an efficiency plan Post Office
management says is necessary. The Treasury has said that it can give no
such assurances, and that without the efficiency plan, the Post Office
Corporation will go broke by the end of the year.
That ought to help the tourism industry, eh? I really don't feel like spending Rosh HaShanna in Cyprus, but I can rest assured that if anyone doesn't get home before Rosh HaShanna because of one of these inane sympathy strikes, the government will finally bite the bullet and break the unions.
בשביל זה יש הסתדרות (for this we have the Histadrut).
Labels: Ben Gurion Airport, general strike, Histadrut
Today's chapter in 'Only in Israel'
Here's today's chapter in '
Only in Israel.'
Good grief....
Labels: Chabad House, Histadrut
Protection for me but not for thee
If you're an Israeli, would you rather work at the Electric Company or at Intel? All the non-Israelis probably answered Intel, but Israelis know they'd rather work at the Electric Company, if only they could get in. Combine high salaries, free electricity (which powers everything in your house) and job security protected by the Histadrut (best described for you Americans as an alliance between the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters and the mob), and you have 'work conditions' that cannot be beat.
Not even by Intel?
IEC and Intel seem like very different companies, but there
are also striking similarities: Both are very large - the IEC employs
nearly 13,000 workers, while Intel Israel has 9,000; both have offices
or installations around the country; both are established companies and
offer excellent employment terms; both try not to fire employees,
offering some certainty in a tumultuous job market.
But
Intel is a private company, and when it announced that it would not be
firing workers during the global financial crisis in 2009, it paid the
price out of its own pocket. IEC employees, on the other hand, have
their jobs protected thanks to collective wage agreements and aggressive
unions, which make it very hard for management to fire workers. Intel
is a profitable international firm that lives on innovation and sales;
the IEC is a local, government-owned company with a massive NIS 72
billion deficit, and some of that debt will be borne by the public due
to lack of choice, through higher power prices.
Intel
doesn't publish its salary data, but it's fair to assume that workers
are paid well. It also offers lots of attractive benefits, including
letting employees work from home one day a week, and a program that lets
new mothers return to work gradually.
Conditions
at the IEC, in comparison, make headlines. A report by the Finance
Ministry salary director from the beginning of the year reported that
the average wage there is NIS 30,000 a month, while managers average NIS
80,000. Add to this benefits like free electricity, handsome pensions
and job security, and it's clear why workers rank this company on top.
"So
what if we don't like that company?" said one high-tech worker who
wants to get hired at the IEC. "You can't buy food with love."
That
sentiment also applies to the Ashdod Port, which ranked 30 on the list.
The port has been making headlines itself lately due to repeated
strikes, rampant nepotism, near total union control and massive salaries
(navigators earn NIS 70,000 a month). Despite all this - or maybe
because of it - it shot up nine places from last year's ranking, placing
it well above companies including food manufacturer Osem (42) and
high-tech company Verint (46). The lesson is clear - it's fun to cluck
our tongues at aggressive unions, but it's even more fun to be protected
by them.
The
rankings were based on surveys with tens of thousands of workers and
corporate statistics for the 12 months that ended in March 2013. The
surveyors started with a sample of 2,000 employees, asking them what
they valued in a workplace. They then conducted a broader survey,
weighing the results against what workers said they valued in the
initial survey.
The
surveyors also conducted internal surveys at more than 60 companies, as
well as among university students and manpower company managers.
The surveys were conducted over the course of a year and in locations around the country.
Note that the article doesn't say which company won. Last year, it was Intel. This year?
But what does it say about our economy when two of the top three places to work are 'government companies' that provide astronomical salaries and ridiculous job security on the public dole? Welcome to the socialist paradise.
Labels: Histadrut, Intel, Israel Electric Corporation, socialism
Israeli 'defense officials' make their own policy
Am I the only one who sees a difference between making a proposal to your boss and leaking it to the media to pressure your boss to implement it? For some reason, unnamed 'defense officials' (who are presumably not the minister or the deputy minister) think that leaking their proposals for appeasing the 'Palestinians' to the media is
acceptable behavior (Hat Tip:
Shy Guy).
The list, consisting of
measures that are intended to appease Palestinians but will not
compromise Israel's security, was submitted to ministerial officials,
but whether it will be implemented has yet to be determined.
The document offers
that ammunition will be handed to the PA, including crowd dispersal
measures, and that permits to open new Palestinian police stations be
granted.
The document also included a list of 30-40 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom ill or elderly, who can be released
without posing a risk to the State's security, in the eyes of defense officials.
That was one of the arguments used to release Sheikh Yassin in the '90's. He gave orders for Hamas suicide bombings for years until Israel liquidated him.
The proposal further
suggests that Israel support the development of Palestinian villages,
industry and roads, including the construction of a road around Ramallah
and the improvement of the authority's infrastructure.
According to sources with the defense establishment, the measures will achieve Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
an advantage with his people.
Why should we be supporting a dictator whose four-year term expired more than four years ago? For that matter, why should we be paying for the construction of the infrastructure of a 'Palestinian state' - which will be dedicated to our destruction. Let them pay for it themselves from all their 'aid money' that they get from the 'international community.'
Last week, senior officials have insisted that Israel
had no intention of granting any appeasement measures until peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians were resumed.
And that's why they're taking their 'proposals' to the media and not to their bosses.
The Mattot Arim organization is outraged (via email):
Civil servants in the Defense Ministry/IDF, who are supposed to be non-political, are instead hard at work promoting their own favorite pro-Palestinian concessions.
They even brazenly publicized their initiatives: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4369625,00.html:
These civil servants are promoting the following terrible ideas (have they learned nothing??)
a, supplying more ammunition to the Palestinians
b. giving Palestinians permission to build more "police stations" (military camps i.e.)
c. releasing 30-40 life-sentenced terrorists next month (!)
d. MOST DANGEROUS OF ALL: allowing Palestinians to build up (i.e. gain footholds in) the Israeli part of Judea and Samaria -- right next to all the Jewish communities -- rather than building in the large areas the Palestinians already took over as a result of the Oslo accords!! (the Hebrew article, but not the English translation, explains this last point; so if you read Hebrew, you can see it here: http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4368580,00.html).
For those wondering why these employees are not fired (even assuming they could be identified)... most of them are unionized and cannot be fired!
What could go wrong?
Labels: appeasement, Histadrut, Palestinian state, unilateral concessions
Bishvil zeh yesh Histadrut (for this, there are unions)
Good luck if you're trying to enter or leave Israel today. There's an election for head of the Histadrut (our national trade union - think of a combination of the AFL-CIO, the teamsters and the mob and you'll have the Histadrut) next month and the chairman, pictured above, wants to prove to his membership how much he's doing for them.
The Labor court allowed the Histadrut to strike today, provided that they only shut down Ben Gurion Airport from 6:00 am until Noon. Presumably, the airport operated all night to accommodate, and good luck to anyone who couldn't get out or who was supposed to land.
The supposed issue of this strike is 'contract workers,' which have proliferated greatly over the last several years, including within the government itself. It is almost impossible to fire anyone in this country, especially in the public sector (start with an automatic lump sum payment of one month's salary for every year you've been employed, and continue with unemployment benefits in which the employer has to participate that equal your working salary - leaving no incentive to go back to work before they run out), so businesses have taken to hiring employees by virtue of a contract so that they they are not legally employed and therefore don't have to be paid any benefits.
In order to be populists, the Histadrut has focused on the cleaning people, who are generally hired by temp agencies - they want the government to hire them.
For those of you stuck in it, there is a list of affected services
here and a summary of the issues
here.
But here's the key to understand strikes here: There are no strike votes. When the Histadrut decides to strike, they strike. The workers have no say. (When I worked in the government, our agency NEVER went on strike. We came to work no matter what the Histadrut did, on principle).
Labels: general strike, Histadrut
Good grief: Strike on for four hours
It's perhaps indicative of the way strikes work in this country that when I Googled "Israel, picket lines" for an image, all that popped up were anti-Israel demonstrations abroad. In fact, there are almost no picket lines here for general strikes, because most people just stay home. When I worked in the government, I worked for an agency that was full of capitalists, and on principle we came to work and answered the phones whenever there was a strike.
In the end, the court ruled that they can strike, but only for four hours, from 6:00 to 10:00 am. The problem is that by the time they decided that - sometime after I turned off the radio and went to synagogue at 5:25 am - the damage had been done. Let me give you an idea: Mrs. Carl's father, who left for a trip abroad today, had to be at the airport four hours before flight time (instead of the usual two) so that they could send his flight early before the airport closed at 8:00. (All of the morning flights left this morning. For those of you who are wondering what happens if you're on your way here if a strike is declared, they will either send you back or land you in Cyprus and hold you there until the strike is over). Mrs. Carl, who needed to be in a meeting outside Jerusalem this morning, rented a car. One of Carl's offspring, who shall remain nameless, decided to take the day off from school because 'they' already promised a strike. But at least the unions get the cathartic release of striking, and the head of the Histadrut can point to his great '
accomplishment' in the upcoming Histadrut elections.
After an all-night hearing, the National Labor Court finally issued a temporary order at 6 a.m. Monday morning restricting the general strike planned for Monday to just four hours.
According to the court ruling, the strike is permitted to go ahead from 6 a.m. through 10 a.m. but intensive court-supervised negotiations between the Histadrut and the Finance Ministry will continue.
...
The Histadrut said in a statement after the meeting that it would “not continue to conduct negotiations unless the finance minister changed his stance” on the employment status of contract workers.
The Histadrut wants more than 100,000 cleaners, guards and maintenance staff servicing the public sector as contract workers to be moved into direct employment. Steinitz and Finance Ministry officials say they support improving the salaries and work conditions of contract workers, but the Histadrut says this is not enough.
The strike would cost the economy around NIS 400 million a day, Shraga Brosh, president of the Manufacturers Association and chairman of the Federation of Israeli Economic Organizations, told Channel 2 News.
If I sounds contemptuous, it's because I am. There are no strike votes here. When there is a strike against the public sector (which still employs about 40% of the workforce), it's almost always against the entire public sector. The joke here is that half the country is on strike, and the other half sits and watches them.
But to give you some idea what kind of imbalances this kind of labor system causes to the country, when I was in yeshiva here in the late '70's the airport baggage handlers went on strike (they often do so by themselves, as do the airport customs inspectors - you do NOT want to be in the airport when that happens). My father, who was here visiting at the time, read the paper and said quite authoritatively (somehow, he knew these things) that Ben Gurion Airport had more ground workers than United Airlines - then the largest airline in the US - had... in the entire United States.
Enough said.
Labels: Ben Gurion Airport, general strike, Histadrut
General strike coming at 6:00 am
I'm writing this about three hours before you will see it, but as of this writing, we're going to have a
general strike at 6:00 am, with the airport going offline at 8:00 am.
The Histadrut announced that all local authorities would be closed, as would Ben Gurion Airport and other ports. Ships already in port will not be unloaded, and ships that are approaching Israeli ports will not be allowed to dock. Trains and buses, for the most part, will not be running, and health fund (kupat cholim) offices would run on emergency schedules only, as would state hospitals and all government offices. Banks will be closed as well, as will the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Most of Israel's colleges and universities will be closed as well. As of now, elementary and high schools will remain open, although most teachers are not expected to show up for class. Further announcements of businesses will be closed will be made during the course of Sunday, the union said. The Histadrut added that the strike was open-ended, and that workers would remain on strike until contract workers were included among the ranks of regular workers throughout the economy.
The Histadrut is like the AFL-CIO, the Teamsters and the Mafia all rolled into one, and we have strikes like this once or twice a year. Bishvil zeh yesh Histradrut (for this there's a Histadrut).
If you're wondering what they're striking over, ostensibly it's to force the government to hire all the contract workers (employed through independent agencies) that currently work indirectly for the government (who would of course then become members of the Histadrut). There's no way the government can do that without busting the budget.
Labels: general strike, Histadrut
Oh joy! The diplomats' strike is over
We must be the only country in the world that could even have a 'diplomats' strike' and I can't wait to hear how much it
cost me to settle it.
An agreement reached Monday means that a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and several ministers to attend the annual joint Israel-Germany Cabinet session will go ahead this week as scheduled, according to reports.
As part of the three-year agreement, the diplomats will receive a salary increase, a bonus package and a special bonus for diplomats serving abroad, many of whom have said they could not afford to live in their host countries on meager salaries. A demand for outside evaluation for major promotions will be addressed outside of the salary dispute, according to reports.
The yearlong strike, called to bring Foreign Ministry salaries in line with the Defense Ministry and the Mossad, disrupted diplomatic mail, assistance to Israelis abroad and relations with foreign ministries abroad. Israel's ambassador to the United Nations skipped a session earlier this month dedicated to the Middle East and Israel due to the strike.
Earlier this month, a delegation of 500 that included business leaders and led by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had to be canceled due to a lack of cooperation from Foreign Ministry personnel.
Spoiled brats.
Labels: diplomats' strike, Histadrut
Israel Military Industries to merge into Rafael?
Israel may be about to take another step in privatizing its military equipment suppliers. Of course, the government can't use the word '
privatizing.'
Israel’s Globes business daily newspaper reports tonight that the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Defense have agreed on a plan to merge Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI) with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. The plan is also endorsed by IMI’s union representatives. A formal announcement is expected by the end of the month.
In the past the ministry of Finance insisted IMI should be privatized, a procedure that was not accepted by the unions nor by the ministry of defense, which supported merging the company with one of the country’s two government owned companies – IAI or Rafael. Merging of IMI with privately held Elbit Systems also encountered opposition on privatization grounds.
Both IAI and Rafael companies expressed interest in acquiring IMI, whose portfolio closely matches both company’s activities. It is anticipated that by merging IMI’s activities within Rafael, IMI could become financially stable.
For those who don't know how things work in what's left (and it's a lot despite perceptions abroad) of our socialist paradise, government workers - like IMI's and Rafael's - get salaries and especially benefits that are far more generous than those in the private sector. And they don't want to give them up.
Labels: Histadrut, Israel Military Industries, Rafael
