The prospect of a nationwide strike by workers in Israel loomed today–on the sixth day since the devaluation of the Israeli pound–as a result of continued rise in prices, conflicting government orders, and shortages created by merchants who withheld their products until some price stability developed.
A decision to call a nationwide one-hour strike on Monday was adopted last night here at a stormy meeting of workers held in connection with the effects of the currency devaluation. The walkout would also be in support of demands for an increase in cost of living allowances immediately instead of in July, the agreed date for changes in the indices.
No transactions were made today in chemicals and building materials because dealers still had no solid information on what would happen to their costs. The tendency toward rising prices, which began soon after devaluation and a new economic policy were announced on February 9, today involved a number of farm products.
Officials explained that such increases were seasonal but the increases, coupled with other higher prices for coffee, tea, imported canned fish and other items, increased the bitterness of wage earners suddenly confronted by higher prices impacting on fixed wages.
New orders, some of them contradicting earlier ones and some canceling orders issued in the previous 24 hours, did nothing to calm the situation and people simply did not know what to do.
The Government cut the price of diesel oil but this step did not prevent the bus cooperatives from asking for higher fares. Prospects for such increases were regarded as slight.
Some relief was provided to thousands of owners of apartments in Government sponsored housing projects who had dollar-linked mortgages. New regulations were issued enabling such apartment owners to pay off the remainder of their mortgages within a month at the old rate of exchange or arrange an exchange of the rate from the dollar to the cost of living index retroactively. Announcement of the new regulations sent people scrambling to banks and other lending institutions seeking new loans to cover the dollar-linked obligations.
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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.
