Prime Minister Levi Eshkol warned Israel’s workers yesterday that they could not have both an increase in their cost-of-living allowances and full employment.
Speaking at a rally of factory workers organized by the Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation, the Premier said the workers would have to choose. He promised immediate efforts to alleviate unemployment in Israel’s development areas and pledged, in response to criticisms of government bureaucracy, that there would soon be dismissals in the civil service.
Commerce and Industry Minister Haim Zadok caused an uproar when he told his labor audience that price increases were often caused by wages rising faster than output. He said the crucial question was whether wage increases “will impair our export drive.” He said it was incorrect to compare wages earned in Israel with those earned in the United States.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
