The striking Engineers Union yielded today to Government pressure and agreed to order back to work 43 striking members the Government said were needed to complete urgently needed immigrant housing.
The decision of the union, which called out its 6,000 salaried engineers, chemists, architects and agronomists from their jobs in government and public institutions last January 11, averted implementation of “emergency regulations” which would have forced the required engineers to return to work.
In announcing the decision, the union said that the agreement to permit the 43 strikers to return to work should not be interpreted as “yielding to the threat” of emergency regulations but rather as an indication of the union’s readiness to come forward “with goodwill” to seek a solution to the wage impasse.
It was Labor Minister Yigal Allon who worked out the agreement on the 43 engineers. He was next expected to take up the dispute at the Cabinet level for a new effort to end the walkout. Meanwhile the Electric Corporation warned that unless striking engineers returned to work soon to operate the new Haifa power station, there was danger that severe cuts would have to be ordered in the supply of electric current.
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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.
