Israel Union Members Clash with Non-union Arab Workers at Work Site

Police broke up fist-fights here today between picketing members of the Jerusalem building workers union and Arab laborers from East Jerusalem who showed up for work at a construction site without having been assigned by the Labor Exchange. Police sent the Arabs away. The contractor later signed an undertaking to employ workers only through the Labor Exchange in the future in accordance with Israeli law. Workers so employed must receive full union wages and fringe benefits.

But many employers in Israel have apparently been hiring West Bank Arabs directly, by-passing the labor exchanges in order to pay lower wages. The controller of manpower at the Labor Ministry said yesterday that Israeli authorities had overlooked this practice in the past because of severe shortages in Israel in skilled and semi-skilled workers. He estimated that there were several thousand West Bank Arabs currently working in Israel, many of whom got their jobs by private arrangement.

Labor Minister Joseph Almogi announced yesterday that the Labor Exchange would establish six branches in the Gaza strip and the West Bank to direct Arabs to jobs in Israel. He said that residents of Gaza and the West Bank would be permitted to work anywhere in Israel provided that confirmed employment was available to them and provided that they obtain prior security clearances from the Military Governor. The influx of Arab workers into Israel was partly responsible for the re-establishment of security check points on highways linking the occupied territories with Israel proper. The manpower controller said that the demand for skilled and semi-skilled workers, particularly in the construction industry has exceeded the supply by 5,000 in the past few weeks.