Jerusalem – Meeting in urgent session on Tuesday, the Union of Local Authorities decided to take painful and immediate action, to strike local government on Sunday and Monday, less than a week ahead of Rosh Hashanah. The strike is a response to budgetary cuts.

The two-day strike will be comprehensive, and will impact many services, including but not limited to garbage removal, city government offices will be closed, kindergartens will be closed, parking summonses will not be written, school transportation will be halted and school security guards will be striking.

Strike leaders also turned to the teachers, calling upon them to join in. a response has not yet been forthcoming. Nevertheless, many schools will close since there will not be security and administrative personnel are included in the strike.

Treasury officials explain there is simply not enough money and the move was compelled by simple fiscal realities, the result of the global economic scene.

On Monday, dozens of mayors and municipal leaders will make their way to Jerusalem for a protest outside the Prime Minister’s Office, and they will be escorted by garbage trucks and fire trucks, a formula for guarantees traffic snarls in and around the government complex in the capital.

Union of Local Authorities chairman, Shlomo Buchbut warns that is a solution is not found, the strike will resume after the chagim, this time, open-ended.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)