The Cabinet decided at its weekly session to provide Israel Shipyards with $6 million in an effort to prevent the closing of the huge Haifa-based plant. Nonetheless, some 250 employes are expected to lose their jobs.
The Cabinet provided the shipyards with new funds for operations until at least the end of the year. In the meantime, it hopes to secure new contracts in the Far East and for the construction of conventional submarines for the United States Navy.
If new contracts are not secured, the future of the shipyards will be reconsidered. It is on this understanding that Finance Minister Yitzhak Modai dropped his demand that the plant be closed immediately.
The Cabinet also decided this week to affirm its decision to dismiss several thousand civil service employes in a cost-cutting measure. Modai and Industry and Trade Minister Ariel Sharon proposed that current price freeze measures be extended to March, 1986. The price freeze is due to expire in October.
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