Dockworkers at Haifa, Ashdod and Eilat ended their work slowdown after they apparently won a partial victory in their campaign for wage increases. A Cabinet committee appointed to deal with the crisis on the docks agreed this afternoon to a recommendation by Histadrut that the wages of all industrial workers, including the longshoremen, be raised by 4-5 percent.
But Finance Minister Yehoshua Rabinowitz announced immediately afterwards that he opposed the increase. It was also opposed by the managers of the various Histadrut-owned industries. Nevertheless, Histadrut Secretary General Yeruham Meshel appears determined to push it through. The increase would amount to about IL 200 per month. The dockworkers were demanding IL 600 per month.
The Eilat dockworkers were the first to resume normal productivity. Those at Haifa and Ashdod were preparing for full-scale work this evening. They promised to do all they could to reduce the backlog of cargo, mostly citrus fruit, that has been piling up on the quays.
Meanwhile, the citrus growers ordered 24,000 laid-off pickers to resume the harvest for the first time in nearly a week. Citrus picking was suspended last Tuesday when longshoremen at the three seaports went on strike. The strike was ended on Thursday by a government back-to-work order that carried severe penalties for noncompliance. But the disgruntled port workers instituted a rule-book slowdown and their productivity was one-third of the normal rate.
The slowdown was said to be costing some $2 million a day and about 400,000 cases of citrus were beginning to rot on the docks, according to the Citrus Marketing Board. But the decision to give in to the wage demands may have serious repercussions.
Yesterday, Avraham Shavit, president of the Israel Manufacturers Association warned the government not to take any action that would encourage workers to break contracts they had signed. The dockworkers signed new wage agreements only five months ago. Shavit said that unless the government enforced “law and order” in the labor sector, the manufacturers would take measures of their own to see that production continued and that exports reached their destination.
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