Israeli teachers threatened a general strike today and Tel Aviv municipal workers walked off the job bringing public services to a standstill.
The teachers, demanding pay raises despite the wage-price freeze now in effect, reported to their classes an hour late yesterday and two hours late this morning. Education Minister Yitzhak Navon met with representatives of the teachers union today to urge them to call off the full strike scheduled for tomorrow.
Garbage went uncollected in Tel Aviv today because sanitation workers and other city employes have not been paid their November wages. It is the fourth consecutive month that the municipality has been unable to meet its payroll on time because funds have been exhausted.
On previous occasions the city borrowed from banks. Mayor Shlomo Lehat, who appealed to Premier Shimon Peres this week for government aid, was told the city would have to manage on its own.
The Treasury cannot transfer funds to hard-pressed municipalities without printing new money. It already owes some 30 billion Shekels in price support subsidies for such basics as petrol, electricity and water which were due last month. The government so far has been unable to persuade Histadrut to agree to price increases for subsidized items during the freeze period to ease the burden on the Treasury.
There was some good economic news today. At the prodding of the Bank of Israel, the country’s banks will reduce their prime rate from 14 to 12 percent. The prime rate is the interest banks charge their best customers. Starting tomorrow, the interest paid on bank loans and overdrafts will be down by two percent, the third decrease in the last four weeks.
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