Employees of Bezek, Israel’s government-run telephone corporation, staged a strike Monday, but the work stoppage affected only parts of the country.
Bezek’s 10,000 employees, who charge the company has failed to implement wage agreements, are divided into two camps. The largest group, covering some 60 percent of the work force and concentrated in the greater Tel Aviv area, decided not to obey the strike call of the central telephone workers’ committee.
The strikers defied a court order issued Sunday by the Tel Aviv Labor Court ordering them not to stop work.
The strike closed down telephone repair and information services and shut the corporation’s offices throughout the country, apart from Tel Aviv.
Israel Radio and Television transmitters emanating from the central area, and maintained by post office engineers, stopped broadcasting. But the main AM transmitters, located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and maintained by central region committee members, continued to broadcast and could be picked up through the country, including places were local FM transmitters were silenced.
The strikers said they would allow broadcasts of three television programs Monday evening: the Hebrew and Arabic news programs, and the broadcast of the Mondial World Soccer Cup games from Italy.
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