Histadrut is 100 percent behind the government’s price freeze and will cooperate in making it effective. That was the upshot of a meeting here yesterday between leaders of the trade union federation and Cabinet ministers.
Histadrut secretary general Yitzhak Ben Aharon, an outspoken critic of government economic policies in the past, said the government should be thanked for ordering the freeze and predicted that a turn for the better was at hand after five months of an unhappy economic situation.
Labor Minister Yosef Almogi, a prime mover behind the government’s decision to freeze the prices of basic commodities and services for a 90-day period, praised what he called a more positive attitude by Histadrut. He said he hoped it augured well for future cooperation.
Deputy Premier Yigal Allon said at the meeting that the price freeze was only a first step to let the economy cool down while the government attacked the more basic problem of inflation. Welfare Minister Michael Hazani of the National Religious Party said that according to the Talmud, persons guilty of price offenses should be imprisoned. (See analysis P. 4.)
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