A general meeting of 1, 700 strikers at ATA. Israel’s largest textile plant, voted today to accept arbitration of the 10-week-old labor dispute by Premier David Ben Gurion. However, the strikers stipulated that they would not return to work until after the Premier announced his findings.
The strikers’ decision came 12 hours after the Haifa Labor Council, which had been conducting the strike, surrendered to an ultimatum from the Mapi Party central committee to either submit to Mr. Ben Gurion’s arbitration or have the matter taken out of its hands by the Histadrut executive. The local labor council’s action followed conferences between its members and various Cabinet officers, including the Premier, here and in Jerusalem yesterday.
The vote within the labor council to accede to the ultimatum was 10 to 4, with the Mapam and Account Avivah’s representative holding out. Significantly, after the Mapai central committee ultimatum to the council Sunday night, the left-wing Socialists stepped up a press and oral campaign against Mr. Ben Gurion’s arbitration.
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