The accomplishment of an American expert in increasing the efficiency of the port of Haifa, in Israel, is reported today from Tel Aviv in the New York Times. The expert, Dr. Boris Stern, a specialist in labor productivity in the U.S. Department of Labor, was sent to Israel under the United Nations technical assistance program.
The report points out that since the establishment of the state of Israel, the country’s only major port of Haifa has become one of the most inefficient in the world. Most officials had maintained that nothing could be done about it without a big expenditure for new equipment and expansion. In July, however, the port suddenly raised its productivity in handling cargo by 35 percent compared to last year’s average by putting into operation proposals made by Dr. Stein.
“There was no big expenditure, ” the Times report says. “On the contrary. Whereas in July of last year the port had to pay $45,000 in demurrage charges to 14 ships as compensation for excessive delays in port, in July of this year the port collected $6,000 from three ships that were handled so rapidly they became subject to the payment of port dispatch money.” In a few months, when shipping becomes heavier, Dr. Stein expects the increase in productivity to reach 50 percent.
Dr. Stein, the report emphasizes, is not the first expert to diagnose the Haifa port’s trouble, but he is the first in Haifa or any other part of Israel to persuade labor, management and the Government not only to accept his minimum proposals but also to give him the authority to put them into effect.
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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.
