A 24-hour strike of workers employed by two oil distributing firms, which threatened to shut off oil supplies from Israeli transportation and industry, ended this evening after Minister of Labor Yigal Allon threatened to invoke emergency measures authorizing him to draft the striking workers. The Cabinet had voted such authorization to the Minister of Labor at its session yesterday.
The strikers had demanded higher wages. The firms affected were Paz and Delek. The third oil distributing company in Israel, Solel, was not involved.
At a meeting with the workers’ committee this evening, Mr. Allon told the group he would invoke the emergency mobilization measures by tomorrow morning, unless the walk-out were ended. In return, he promised that the workers’ wage demands would be considered immediately after a general wage policy is established by the Histadrut, the Israel federation of labor.
The Delek workers accepted his ultimatum and promised to return to work immediately, while the Paz employes said they would have their membership vote on the Allon proposals tomorrow. It was fully expected that the Paz employes would follow the line adopted by their colleagues at Delek.
When the strike became effective last night, there were wide fears that fuel shortages would affect industry and transportation seriously by tomorrow except at Lydda Airport, where the strikers were willing to supply fuel to airplanes. Lines of Israelis formed today before all oil distributing centers, trying to stock oil before the supply ran out.
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