A ministerial economic committee is to broach with the Histadrut the suggestion of introducing a nine-hour day in factories, offices and other work places so as to share the burden more fairly between the reservists in the armed forces and the rest of the labor, force. The decision came at the committee’s weekly-meeting yesterday in Jerusalem. The proposal was originally mooted by Deputy Transport Minister Gad Yaacobi–and Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir is said to support it. Koor Industries Director-General Meir Amit has taken the thing a stage further by actually introducing a nine-hour day in the huge Koor industrial network. (Koor is Histadrut owned.)
Meanwhile, economists and columnists are warning the public that a long period of belt tightening is scheduled.’ Forced loans and voluntary loans have eaten into family incomes, and increased food and electricity prices have made fur there encroachments. Last week–in the wake of electricity raises of some 30 percent–the price of water skyrocketed by 20 percent. And, following fuel price hikes, taxi fares went up 15 percent in Jerusalem and 20 percent in Tel Aviv.
The Central Bureau of Statistics, in a perversely-timed statement, announced that in January-September 1973, 32,500 new cars had been purchased, 70.300 TV sets, 72.600 washing machines and 55,300 refrigerators–an average rise of 31 percent over the same period last year.
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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.
