Oil company workers and government-employed accountants and cashiers at the Bank Leumi went on strike today in a new wave of labor strife that threatens to cripple Israel’s economy and transportation. As long queues formed at gasoline stations all over the country and Israel’s largest bank was unable to deliver services, former Premier Golda Meir lashed out angrily at the labor force–white collar and blue collar alike–who demand higher wages regardless of the consequences.
Addressing students at Bar Ilan University, where no classes were held today because of a continuing strike by academicians, Mrs. Meir declared, “I do not recognize the people that lives in Zion today. I do not remember when this nation was ever in such a mad rush for more wages.”
Meir, one of the last survivors of the generation of Labor Zionist pioneers who were the founders of Israel, asked rhetorically, “On whose account do we want to live? Is it on the debts or the contributions from abroad, or is it the feeling that the U.S. President and Congress have to go on and provide us? Have we lost our pride, are we unashamed?”
Meir was especially harsh on the striking professors and on government-employed physicians and other professionals who are striking, have been on strike or threaten new strikes and work slowdowns. She said that people in those positions who strike for higher pay show little concern with the basic problems of the nation and precipitate demands from other sectors of the work force who will not be denied higher wages because they don’t happen to have diplomas.
“I do not justify strikes. It will be easier to live here if we work more. A nation under siege conditions as we are cannot permit itself the luxury of strikes,” Meir said.
BANK STRIKE HURTS MERCHANTS
Only a small portion of the employees of the Delek Oil Company were on the job today in compliance with back-to-work orders. But they engaged in a slowdown, taking hours to load tank trucks that normally take minutes to fill. The result was that few deliveries were made to gasoline stations and drivers had to wait hours to fill their tanks.
The Bank Leumi workers called a two-day strike leaving thousands of merchants without cash to conduct their daily business. They, too, were under back-to-work orders but those on duty worked at a slowed-down pace. Finance Minister Yehoshua Rabinowitz said there would be absolutely no concessions to the cashiers and accountants.
He also warned industrial workers, who received substantial wage hikes in recent months, that they will get no more. He urged Histadrut not to support new wage demands. Meanwhile, a slowdown by customs officials has delayed the movement of raw materials and a number of factories have had to suspend operations.
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.
