Premier Menachem Begin met for two hours today with Yeruchan Meshel, Secretary General of Histadrut over the government’s decision to ban El Al flights on the Sabboth and religious holidays. The Cabinet set a three-month deadline to implement the ban. The meeting was reported to have been conducted in “good spirit.” The two men will meet again on the issue in a few weeks.
Meshel reportedly told Begin that the ban would cause the dismissal of many El Al employes. Begin said he was not familiar with that aspect but promised it would be studied by the special ministerial committee appointed to negotiate details of the ban with the El Al management.
El Al employes are bitterly opposed to the Sabbath ban which would significantly reduce the scope of the airline’s operations. They were supported today by representatives of the workers committees of Israel’s 13 largest industrial enterprises who claim to speak for some 50,000 wage earners. They said they would turn a protest strike planned for next week on a cost-of-living payments issue, into a demonstration of solidarity with El Al employes. The committee is not recognized by Histadrut.
WILL NOT AFFECT U.S. PASSENGERS
El Al sources point out that El Al does not operate any trans-Atlantic flights on Saturdays and a Sabbath flight ban would therefore not affect the airline’s American passengers. But about one-quarter of all El Al weekly flights are operated on Saturdays, to destinations throughout Europe.
Most of these Saturday passengers are non-Jewish holiday tourists who prefer to start or end their vacation trips at weekends, to gain an additional working day for their holiday. On an average recently, El Al has operated 13 flights on Saturday, carrying some 4,000 passengers, as well as operating special freight flights of vegetables and fresh flowers to Europe.
A sizeable proportion of the airline’s employes work to service these Sabbath flights. They include maintenance and operations personnel as well as flight crews and cabin attendants. Overtime pay for such Sabbath work, at about three times normal rates plus alternative time off makes up about 15 percent of the employes pay packets, airline sources said.
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