Four hundred El Al employes were furloughed today as the airline attempted to cut its losses resulting from a strike of 120 technical supervisors which has grounded the company’s fleet of 12 Boeing jets. El Al claimed that it has lost IL 3.5 million since the strike began Sunday. It has managed, however, to place all of its passengers on chartered or foreign-flag flights.
A proposal was made last night that El Al, Israeli’s national airline, dissolve itself. Its 5000 employes would be dismissed and a new company would be organized under a different name which would re-hire only selected employes. The proposal was flatly rejected by Yitzhak Ben Aharon, secretary general of Histadrut, at a meeting of the Histadrut Central Committee. But Histadrut issued a call to the strikers to return to their jobs.
Transport Minister Shimon Peres was authorized last night to decide what steps to take to restore El Al to normal operations. Under consideration are the recruitment of supervisors from Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. or the employment of foreign technical supervisors.
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