Reports that the U.S. Defense Department will offer Israeli workers wages as high as $150 per day in the construction of two new air bases in the Negev have alarmed Israeli officials. This is about 10 times the average wage in Israel and Minister of Commerce and industry Gideon Patt is frankly worried about the impact it will have on the local labor market.
He expressed concern that thousands of Israeli workers would leave their present jobs for the airfield bonanza in the Negev and that the country’s entire wage structure would be undermined. Apart from the severe inflationary pressure of such high pay it could also inspire large-scale “yerida”– emigration of Israelis, Patt warned in a statement.
The U.S. is to finance the construction of two of the three new air bases to be built in the Negev to replace those Israel will give up in Si### Patt said that if the Americans require local labor they should do their hiring through local employment agencies and contractors rather than solicit workers directly.
Ahigh-ranking Pentagon official, Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, David Mc Giffer, is due here tomorrow, possibly to sign agreements for the construction of the two airfields. A team of Pentagon technicians has already made its surveys and plans for the two airfields are said to be 90 percent completed McGiffert will discuss the remaining issues. One airfield will be built near Eilat and the other at Ramat Matred in the central Negev. The Americans have promised to have the fields operational within three years.
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