Histadrut secretary-general Itzhak Ben Aharon called for a guaranteed minimum wage for Israeli workers last night because 20 percent of the nation’s wage earners had an income that did not allow them to maintain a “dignified standard of living.” Appearing on a television interview, the trade union official said Israel had sufficient unused capital reserves to improve the living standard of the underprivileged classes. He said he did not have new taxes in mind but improved tax collection procedures under existing regulations. Ben Aharon announced that Histadrut planned to spend between $14-$17.5 million for the rehabilitation of 1,200 underprivileged families. He announced that he would soon go to West Germany to return the recent visit to Israel of the president of the German Trade Union Federation. He pointed out that in the past year German labor organizations have “supported Israel’s national struggles.” He said he would be going to Germany “not free of personal inhibitions.”
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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.