Murray Finley, newly elected president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, called yesterday for greater solidarity between American and Israeli trade unions to combat efforts by corporations with world wide operations to depress wages in underdeveloped countries in order to squeeze maximum profits from local labor.
Addressing 1500 delegates attending the three-day convention of the National Committee for Labor Israel, Finley said that in view of the efforts by what he termed multi-national corporations to “seek the lowest wage areas where trade unions are the weakest,” unions “must have solid ties with trade unions around the world, such as Israel.” He said that Histadrut is the only free democratic trade union in the Middle East. “Nowhere else in the Middle East is there collective bargaining and nowhere is there the right to strike,” Finely asserted.
The mutual cooperation between American labor and Histadrut,” he continued, “is morally correct, philosophically correct and economically correct.” Citing Histadrut as “the preserver of freedom and thus the creator of higher standards of living for workers in Israel.” the ACW president declared that corporations which invest in Israel know they must negotiate with Histadrut and thereby provide minimum wages, settle grievances and permit industrial democracy in their plants. This protects Israeli and American workers “because if the trade union in Israel is strong, the multi-national corporation cannot weaken trade unions either in Israel or the U.S.”
ISRAELIS CLOSE TO AMERICAN LABOR
Yosef Almogi, Israel’s Minister of Labor, said that Israelis welcome the friendship of the American people, their institutions, Congress and the Administration and feel especially close to the American labor movement. Noting that there is “some unrest in labor relations” in Israel due to the shortage of labor, heavy taxes and rising prices, Almogi said that Histadrut and the Israeli government are doing their best to settle disputes peacefully.
He also commented: “We are employing 50,000 Arabs in the administered areas and in this we are fulfilling two tasks. We are giving full employment in the administered areas where the Arab refugees and others have suffered through years of unemployment. They are now enjoying a rising standard of living. The Arabs are getting equal wages for equal jobs. For the first time in their lives, they enjoy a wide range of fringe benefits.”
Uzi Blach, the Histadrut representative to the American labor movement, said that “years ago American labor put an end to sweat shops. Let’s hope that American labor will put an end to terror in the skies,” he said, citing Arab terrorist actions. He said that last month American labor representatives were among the representatives of aviation workers from all over the world who decided to notify those countries which harbor terrorists that if they don’t change their attitudes by Jan. 1, aviation service to those countries will be discontinued.
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