[ALL UPDATES BELOW] The Israel Airports Authority (IAA) employees union declared a general strike at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday.
Flights already in progress were to be allowed to land but passengers will not be able to collect their luggage. Moreover, there will be no further departures.
The strike was expected to interfere with the plans of over 29,000 passengers who were set to depart or arrive at the airport on Monday. Both incoming and outbound flights were to be affected. All airlines operating flights to Ben-Gurion airport have received notice of the strike.
On Saturday, IAA management, the general workers’ union and the Histadrut labor federation, which represents organized labor in Israel, began negotiations. The first round of talks ended unsuccessfully on Sunday at the office of Yaakov Ganot, General Manager of the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety.
On Monday morning, another attempt to resolve the issue and prevent the strike proved unfruitful.
Last Tuesday intensive negotiations prevented a strike during the Rosh Hashanah holiday, which would have paralyzed flight transportation to Israel and would have affected over 100,000 travellers.
“Transport Ministry, Finance Ministry, airport officials and the union will work to try to find a solution to the workers’ pension demands,” Ben-Gurion airport spokeswoman said on Monday.
A small riot broke out at the airport, after hundreds of people returning from their annual pilgrimage to Uman, found out they would not be able to claim their baggage.
A group of them began shouting “disgrace,” banging drums they had with them, and even burst into an impromptu dance on the baggage conveyor, damaging it slightly. No arrests have been made.
UPDATE 10:37AM EST: Ben Gurion Airport employees decided to unload luggage from all of the airplanes that landed on Monday despite continuing a general strike.
In addition, airplanes that were scheduled to fly to Uman to bring back Breslov Chassidim will be allowed to depart.
The sides are continuing to negotiate in the hopes of reaching a deal on the issue of the workers’ pensions.
UPDATE 11:04AM EST: The Ben Gurion Airport’s workers union has ended its strike after reaching an agreement with the Treasury and Transportation Ministry on workers’ pensions.
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(Source: Haarertz / Ynet)
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10 Responses
Are these people stupid??? All the bad feeling from tourists, not to mention bilions of lost revenue from people who can’t get to Israel. Not the best time to do this.
that’s the point of this strike, to wreak the most havoc possible in order to get their demands.
Here we go again. They it almost every year on the busiest day of the year.
Jewish Terrorists…..
I haven’t been to Israel in years. Why? because it’s a crazy country!
Ichbin, come to Eretz Yisrael where you can help make changes, instead of bickering in Chutz La’Aretz. There’s another side to the story: additional baggage handlers are hired during the summer but then dismissed by management during the slow season. It’s a yearly ritual, unfortunately.
Good.
ichbin the cheit of the meraglim was being malshin e”y…
It’s OK. ichbin can stay where s/he is. This country works best for those who are OK with taking the good with the “crazy” and loving every bit of it.
lets face it: a yid without torah guidance (and i refer to the misguided frum people among us too)looks like a fool. the whole medina is one big circus. but being at a circus is fun, no?