Histadrut National Labor Federation leader Ofir Eini is expected to meet with leaders of the nation’s umbrella labor union to declare a ‘work dispute’ on Sunday. Such a move launches the countdown timer that will permit a general sector strike in two weeks, a move that would bring the government sector and large areas of the private sector to a sudden halt.

Eini explains his union is acting “most responsibly”, adding over the past two months, all efforts to discuss workers’ concerns regarding their savings and pensions have fallen on deaf ears and if Finance Minister Roni Bar-On does not show an immediate change in attitude, a strike is the only other alternative left to the union to protect workers’ interests.

Economists warn such a massive sector strike could have a devastating impact on the nation’s already frail economy.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)