Uncensored News from Israel » labor

Israel lays open to attacks by trade unions

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:28:35 +0000

Having failed initially to extort employment concessions from the government, Histadrut has declared a general strike, which includes most government and municipal agencies.

As usual, the government will eventually give in. Which raises the question, what are the limits of the trade union’s influence? Being a monopoly, they can naturally extort virtually anything from the government, so there is no theoretical limit to their demands.

But our socialist government refuses to take the only step needed to solve the crisis: subject trade unions to the same anti-monopoly laws that govern the rest of the country.

Clocking the job: doctors’ lie revealed

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:02:35 +0000

During its drawn-out labor dispute with Health Ministry doctors, the government claimed that many of them really get paid at state hospitals while working in private clinics. So the doctors agreed to register at work so that their working hours would be verifiable.

When the system was launched yesterday, a full 40 percent of doctors refused to use it. They chose to forgo overtime payments in order to hide the time they spend away from their hospitals.

Histadrut demands de-privatization of government services

admin — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:43:45 +0000

The trade union monster is threatening a general strike over the government’s refusal to hire directly those employees who now work for the state through private contractors.

As everyone understands, outsourcing to private firms makes state operations cheaper and more efficient, but the trade union is bent on extracting benefits for its members at the expense of the general population.

Report on illegal workers understates their number

admin — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 07:18:09 +0000

The Knesset’s report on foreign migrants in Israel claims that there are 89,000 legal workers and 95,000 tourists on expired visas. But what about workers on expired visas? These workers are unobtrusively included in the 89,000 figure; ‘legal’ means that they entered our country legally, not that they stay here legally now.

The report states that only 31,000 Palestinians are working here legally, and does not mention the 200,000 Palestinians working illegally.

The report claims that there are only 45,000 African illegals, though a year ago that number was estimated to be from 40,000–60,000, and since the Arab Spring they have been entering at a rate of one thousand per week. This means their number must be closer to 120,000.

Instead of the 250,000 foreign workers claimed by the government, we would expect 550,000–600,000 of them.

Israeli interns go against global norms

admin — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 19:13:07 +0000

The Finance Ministry has agreed to substantially ease the workload on medical interns. This move would be eminently sensible if applied to any other profession, but interns worldwide are stress-tested during their internship. They are forced to take night shifts and work on weekends not for the sake of sadism, but to prepare them for the stress of real-life practice.

The FM agreed to pay each of the interns a $17,000 bonus. This is odd: people study to become doctors to make high salaries. Why should society subsidize those who will soon be wealthy?

Labor blackmail turns into racketeering

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:05:53 +0000

Doctors illegally shut down Rambam Hospital in Haifa after the Health Ministry accepted their resignation letters.

It is clear that they have no intention to resign; their purpose is to demand more perks at public expense. And in order to achieve their goals, the doctors embrace extortion, closing down a public facility.

Incentives for illegals to leave

admin — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 09:59:18 +0000

As we have been suggesting for years, the Ministry of Agriculture mandated that employers deposit NIS500 monthly into their foreign workers’ bank accounts. The workers can withdraw the accumulated amount only upon leaving.

0.3% racketeering

admin — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:08:48 +0000

After half a year of racketeering and crippling society with strikes, doctors have persuaded the Finance Ministry to agree to their demand of a 46% pay raise over ten years. The ministry’s previous offer was 39% over nine years, or 4.3% vs 4.6% per year.

For the trade union, the conflict was not about money, but about flexing their muscles.

Histadrut for Arabs

admin — Wed, 11 May 2011 09:30:23 +0000

Trade unions are lobbying to raise the minimum wage to $1,200 per month. Minimum wage is a tax paid by consumers through the increase in the prices of basic products and services.

Even more importantly, the minimum wage disproportionately benefits Arabs—who work in primitive occupations—and well-paid trade-union members whose salaries are pegged to the minimum wage. Lobbying for minimum-wage hikes, trade unions thus do not care about the Jewish poor, but only about their own members.

Labor racket: they now extort from charities

admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:08:25 +0000

Thousands of social workers are striking for a pay raise. Uniquely, a third of them are not state employees but work for private charities.

Naturally, social workers receive very low salaries because their job is so primitive.

It does not cross their minds that they are free to look for better-paying jobs if they are not satisfied with their current incomes.