A strike was declared on Tuesday morning, 15 Teves, in the port of Ashdod. Mechanical and operating sector workers stopped handling ships and trucks in the port, protesting the port management’s decision to recruit new workers. In response, the port management petitioned the Beersheva Regional Labor Court, which is expected to hear the petition at 1:00pm. The management will seek to defend its right to recruit new employees and will request an order that will instruct the striking workers to return immediately to their work.

The Israeli Shipping Bureau supports the port’s decision to recruit new employees.

The strike broke out 14 days after the announcement of a labor dispute following the management’s decision to absorb 60 new employees to the operating sector. The veteran port workers tried to prevent the move and offered the company’s management solutions that “will waive the absorption of new employees or at least significantly reduce their number.”

Ashdod Port Company Notice blames the union entirely as per its message which follows:

The workers in the operating and mechanical equipment sector at the Ashdod Port Company began a wild and pirated strike this morning and did not register for the ‘A’ shift; The unions cause serious disruptions in the regular work of the port; The port administration: “The committees is mocking the decisions of the Labor Courts and tramples the signed labor agreements.”

The Ashdod port administration said, “The strike of workers committees and mechanical equipment caused great economic damage to the Israeli economy, financial losses to the port’s customers and the port itself. “The workers’ committees are contemptuous of the decisions of the Labor Courts and seek to undermine the decisions of the board of directors. Management will deal with this strike through all the legal, organizational and disciplinary tools available to it.”

Shortly after 9:00am on Tuesday, Ashdod District Court Judge Joseph Yosefi issued a temporary injunction ordering the workers’ union in the operating and mechanical equipment sector to return immediately to work until a hearing on the absorption of 32 new employees for work in the port Ashdod, among designated populations – women, Ethiopians, Muslims, Druse and Circassians.

Following the Labor Court’s back-to-work order, the Ashdod Port Authority called on the workers to return immediately to work as determined by the Court: “We hope that the Histadrut and the committees will respect the decision of the Labor Court and will work in order that the regular work return to the port immediately.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)