President Zalman Shazar and Prime Minister Levi Eshkol were among the first voters today in the nationwide balloting for the Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation, whose membership of more than 850,000 is expected to provide some indication of the relative strengths of the various labor factions contesting the general elections on November 2. Final results in the balloting are expected to be known tomorrow.
Among the seven factions participating in the Histadrut elections are the initial slates of the recently formed Mapai-Achdut Avoda alignment on the one hand, and Ben-Gurion’s Rafi faction on the other, as the first bid for public support since the former Premier broke away from Mapai.
With regard to trade union policy, the balloting may influence the extent of reforms in the Histadrut which the various parties have been demanding during the election campaign. These range from suggestions that the Histadrut abandon its extensive entrepreneur positions, to a proposal that it serve only as a roof organization for autonomous, nationwide professional and trade unions.
In efforts to bring out the vote, the various factions mobilized thousands of local organizers, with taxi cabs being dispatched to the homes of stragglers to take them to the 3,000 polling stations. Histadrut members abroad, from Greenland to Japan, were also voting, as crew members on Israeli ships at sea cast their ballots, with the results sent by radio to Israel.
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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.
