Friends of Israeli Labor Blast Attack on Histadrut

Three American groups associated with the Labor movement in Israel have blasted Israel’s Deputy Defense Minister Mordechal Zipori for his attack on Histadrut during the Herut national convention in Tel Aviv last week. Zipori, who later retracted his remark, called Israel’s labor federation a “Mafia” that “protects parasites.”

“The attack on Histadrut” by Zipori was called “an unprecedented assault on Israel’s working population” and “on the free trade union movement” in a joint statement issued here today by Dr. Judah J. Shapiro, president of the National Committee for Labor Israel and Matthew Schoenwald, chairman of the American Trade Union Council for Histadrut. The statement expressed shock at “the irresponsible anti-labor union-busting statement of a high Israeli government official” and “concern” that it was made “at the official convention of the major party in the ruling coalition.”

SHOCKED AND DISMAYED

The National Executive Committee of the Labor Zionist Alliance expressed “profound shock and dismay” over the attack. In a statement issued at its meeting here over the weekend, the LZA Executive declared that the attack on Histadrut “signals an all-out attempt by Herut and therefore the government of Israel, to blame the Histadrut for the disastrous economic situation in Israel which in reality is the result of the inept bungling economic policy of the present government.” According to the LZA. “This attempt is doomed to failure as was clearly indicated by the violent dissent expressed by substantial elements at the Herut convention who are members of Histadrut and who, along with all the workers in Israel, are bearing the brunt of the catastrophic inflation and favoritism shown to the entrepreneurs and monied elements in the population.”