One thousand El Al office clerks joined 500 workshop employes in a strike today protesting a government back-to-work order which forced striking ground maintenance crews to return to their jobs last night. The El Al management and board of directors met tonight to decide how to deal with the worsening labor situation that has virtually crippled Israel’s national airline.
Labor strife also loomed on another front today as the Seamen’s Union announced that it would strike all Zim ships in Israel and foreign ports on April 27 in protest against “flags of convenience.”
The El Al maintenance crews, who returned to their jobs at midnight under pressure of the government order, expressed their displeasure by resorting to a rule-book slowdown that delayed two of the four flights El Al had scheduled for today. Flight stewards meanwhile were meeting to decide whether to join the workshop gangs in support of the maintenance crews.
Pilots and flight engineers were reported to be drafting a resolution protesting the back-to-work order issued by Transport Minister Shimon Peres. The strike of clerical employes forced senior El Al officials to man ticket counters at all of the company’s offices. Most El Al passengers were still being booked on other airlines. The emergency measures are expected to continue until the labor dispute is settled.
COULD TIE UP MERCHANT MARINE
The threat of a seamens’ strike which would tie up a substantial portion of Israel’s merchant marine was touched off by the fact that Zim’s two new containerships fly the West German flag and are manned in part by Germans. The first of the two 35,000 deadweight ton vessels, the Zim New York, arrived in New York yesterday on her maiden voyage. Zim managing director Moshe Kashti explained that the vessels, built in Italy, were purchased at a bargain price on condition that they fly the West German flag for the time being.
Chaim Zucker, secretary of the Seamen’s Union, said the seamen were not objecting specifically to the German flag but to all flags of convenience. Of 15 new ships building for Zim, only two are intended to fly the Israeli flag. Zucker warned that the manning of Israeli ships by German seamen could lead to serious German-Jewish confrontations. He demanded a government ruling that Israeli ships can fly only the national flag.
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