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
The end of start-up nation?
At Intel Israel's annual conference in Tel Aviv on Sunday, President Mooly Eden warned that
start-up nation isn't forever.
“This isn’t forever,” he said at the company’s annual
conference in Tel Aviv, against a backdrop of convertible touch-screen laptops,
tablets, smartphones and other highpowered gadgets. “Are we investing enough in
Israel on a national level, so that in the future we will a have ‘Israel: The
Start-up Nation, Part Two,’ or will this be a history book?” Eden raised the
question after announcing a banner year for Intel Israel. The company more than
doubled its exports, from $2.2 billion in 2011 to $4.6b. in 2012. That figure
represents 10 percent of Israel’s total exports (excluding diamonds) and 20% of
the country’s $21.5b. in hi-tech exports.
“This should be a flashing red
light,” said Eden, looking like a European Steve Jobs with his backward Kangel
beret matching his all-black attire. Although the company’s remarkable success
in Israel gave him great pride, he said, there were plenty of other tech-savvy
nations that will outpace Israel if it doesn’t make the right
investments.
“We aren’t the only start-up nation in the world. There’s a
start-up nation in India and a start-up nation in China and a start-up nation in
Brazil,” he said, attributing the current Israeli hi-tech boom, in part, to the
influx of relatively educated immigrants from the Soviet Union in the
1990s.
But far from endorsing specific policies, Eden simply paid lip
service to the fields of taxation, export law and education.
The brain drain from high tax rates is a huge problem, and it's the one I see the government doing the least to stop. Out government is addicted to spending, and our older industries are still dominated in many case by the national labor union, which continues to extort exorbitant salaries for little work (see, for example, the ports, including the airport, and the Electric Company).
Labels: Intel, Israeli high tech, start-up companies
Intel investing another $2.7 billion in Israel
Intel has decided to invest another
$2.7 billion in Israel.
Intel is to invest $2.7 billion in Israel to upgrade its chip plant over the next two years, marking another investment by the chip giant in strategic locations around the world.
The upgraded plant will be in Kiryat Gat in the Southern District of Israel and will produce 22nm technology, according to the Economic Times.
Intel Israel's general manager, Maxine Fassberg, said that the plant will be only the second in the world to produce the 22 nanometer chips for Intel, making it a vital facility for future developments, including the Ivy Bridge chips expected later this year.
The $2.7 billion figure includes a grant by the Israeli government to the value of 740 million shekels ($210 million), which may have helped swing Intel's decision. The two have a close relationship.
This will be welcomed by many Israelis. Intel is a huge employer in the country, with over 7,000 employees to date. The company will hire an additional 1,000 people over the next year, with Fassberg reckoning that Intel is already preparing to take on new staff.
The upgrades to the Israeli plant are expected to complete within 2011, with 22 nanometer chip production slated for December of this year.
Notice how they are keeping Israel at the cutting edge of the technology.
Labels: Intel
