Israeli deckhands went on a wildcat strike today. Other branches of the seamen’s union refused to go along. One Israeli ship was idled in Haifa harbor and the crews of others were deliberating whether to join the walk-out which was condemned by Histadrut and the shipping companies. Several Israeli ships on the high seas radioed that they would strike on reaching Israeli ports.
The strike was called by Moshe Levy, secretary of the deckhands’ branch of the union, to protest one of the tax reform measures now before the Knesset that would tax a portion of seamen’s salaries hitherto exempt. It is, in effect, a strike against the government, not the shipowners, and a rebuke to Histadrut which Levy assailed for its willingness to extend present contracts for an other half year. His co-secretaries, representing engine room and stewards department personnel rejected the strike call but the walk-out by the deckhands was sufficient to idle the ships affected.
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