A work slowdown by longshoremen at Haifa and Ashdod has caused large quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables to spoil on the docks. At least 1,000 tons of rotting fruit consigned for export to Europe was dumped and citrus growers have stopped harvesting fruit which has begun to rot on the trees.
The slowdown tied up some 24 ships waiting to load perishable cargoes at Israel’s two largest ports. The longshoremen are demanding a 35 percent increase in incentive payments to compensate for the erosion of their wages by inflation. They ignored a Histadrut back-to-work order. The Association of Ocean Shippers, exporters who move their products to foreign markets by sea, called on Finance Minister Yigal Cohen-Orgad today to intervene. They warned that the Treasury’s efforts to promote exports would fail if the slowdown on the docks continued. Israel is in the midst of its citrus export season.
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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.
