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Israel Bond Strike Deadlocked

May 19, 1981
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The strike by some 500 professional and clerical employes against the State of Israel Bond office here and at 70 regional offices throughout the country remained deadlocked today after an all-night bargaining session.

Negotiators for the Community and Social Employes Union, Local 107, District 1707 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employes and for the Israel Bonds organization began talks at 1 p.m. yesterday which broke off at 5 a.m. this morning.

A spokesman for Local 107 said that picketing at the national Bond offices here and at the regional offices, as well as at all Israel Bond functions, continued. The current contract expired at midnight last Thursday and the Local 107 members struck the following morning.

The union spokesman said that over the weekend, some 100 Israel Bond events throughout the nation were picketed, including one at Tappan Zee Towne House in Nyack, N.Y. at which Sen. Daniel Moynihan (D. N.Y.) was to have been the principal speaker. The union spokesman said Moynihan had been asked not to cross Local 107 picket lines and did not attend the function.

The union spokesman said that, during the bargaining through the night, the union made reductions in some demands but that management “kept throwing up new obstacles.”

BOND EVENTS TERMED SUCCESSFUL

A spokesman for the Israeli Bond office here said that all of some 100 Israel Bond events scheduled for May 17 throughout the United States were held as scheduled with results equal to and, in some cases, surpassing 1980 results for the same events.

He said the Israel Bond Organization had made “as many generous offers as it could to reach a settlement and still carry through its functions.” He asserted that the union insisted on a contract “that is substantially richer than previous contracts at a time when Israel is facing serious financial problems.”

The spokesman said Israel Bond management offers “would still leave the clerical and professional employes” ahead of “other Jewish organizations, in terms of salaries and cost of living adjustments, health benefits, pensions, vacations and holidays.”

He added that a New York state labor mediator “continues to retain jurisdiction” over the dispute and had told both sides they would be subject to his call.

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