More than 11,000 striking industrial workers sent a message to the country’s political and financial leaders Thursday to take no measures that would cost them their jobs.
The one-day walkout was observed by employees from about 100 factories operated by 50 affiliates of the gigantic but financially crippled Koor Industries, a conglomerate owned by Histadrut.
Koor’s fate, including its possible sale to overseas investors, is currently under debate.
A meeting Wednesday night attended by Finance Minister Shimon Peres and top officials of Histadrut, Bank Hapoalim and Koor executives failed to come up with a solution on how to deal with the Koor problem.
Demonstrations by the striking workers at various Koor factories were peaceful but created massive traffic jams all over the country.
Koor, which accounts for a third of Israel’s industrial output, employs more than 20,000 people.
About half of them did not observe the strike. They are employed by various divisions of Tadiran, a manufacturer of electronic and communications equipment, household appliances and batteries.
Tadiran is Koor’s largest single component and also, reportedly, its biggest money-loser because of cutbacks in military spending and the general economic downturn.
Its workers did not join the strike, they said, because they preferred to choose a form of protest best suited to their own particular problems.
These stem from Koor’s plans to divest itself of the company. The Finance Ministry has not decided whether to sell Tadiron as a unit or piecemeal.
Striking workers said their biggest fear is Koor’s possible sale to foreign investors, who will be indifferent to the local work force.
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