The Israel Cabinet, in special session today, adopted emergency measures to restore transportation services throughout the country crippled for the last eight days as a result of a stoppage by the transport cooperatives.
The Cabinet authorized the Minister of Communications to operate public transport services if this measures is considered necessary.
The bus cooperatives halted interurban city services in a dispute with the Government over their demands for fare increases. The Government refused to authorize the 20 per cent increases demanded by the transport services. The Communications Ministry has threatened to nationalize the bus services if the stoppage is not ended.
Earlier, the Dan and Egged bus cooperatives said they would be forced to dismiss all their hired workers if the bus strike continued much longer. The cooperatives had already told non-permanent hired employees that their jobs would be ended within a few days. A spokesman for the employees, however, discounted the dismissal threat. Egged has 1500 such workers and Dan has 1000 on its payroll.
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