Minister of Transport Moshe Carmel today entered the dispute here between dock workers and ship owners which, for two weeks, has hampered this harbor’s operations, and, according to the ship owners, has cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The dock workers have been on a “slow-down” strike for more than a fortnight, demanding agreement on three issues: Higher pay for men with seniority; automatic upgrading of all the workers; and monthly status for all men after eight years of work. As a result of the slow-down, in which the workers are doing their jobs at half speed, many sailings have been delayed while 17 ships were tied up in the port today awaiting their turn for loading or unloading.
Mr. Carmel said he would meet with the ship owners during the day to discuss the requests by the dock workers. The latter had made a number of other demands but said that they were willing to postpone implementation of their other requests if the owners would agree to the three major points at issue.
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.
