Histadruth Plebiscite Rejects Ben-gurion-jabotinsky Pact

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received a narrow majority was Jerusalem.

J. Merininsky, one of the Histadruth leaders, made the following statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today:

“The plebiscite dealt only with the agreements concluded between Ben-Gurion and Jabotinsky in London. Even if the ballot results in rejecting these agreements, the Histadruth will continue negotiations with Revisionist workers in accordance with its old principle along the same lines as with the orthodox workers of the Hapoel Hamizrachi. It is important to remember that the opponents who have just voted against ratification of the agreement with Jabotinsky declared at the last convention of the Socialist Labor party in Palestine their full approval of the principal resolution for establishing peaceful relations between the entire labor element in Palestine.”

TERMS OF PACT LABORITES REJECT

The Labor Agreement, signed by Ben-Gurion and Jabotinsky at Pinchas Rutenberg’s fiat in London, on Armistice Day (Nov. 11, 1934), is a treaty between the Laborites and the Revisionists establishing the conditions of a provisional modus vivendi between the Histadruth and the Revisionist labor unions in Palestine.

Under this agreement, both unions retain their independence and their separate labor exchanges, are required to meet from time to time in order to regulate by mutual consent, the distribution of available work between the applicants of both unions, in accordance with certain rules of procedure and proportion which will have to be worked out by mutual consent after the ratification of the London Agreement. Permanent mediators will have to be elected, also by mutual consent, to intervene whenever the two secretaries cannot agree.

THE STRIKE CLAUSES

The main points of the treaty, however, are those concerning “strike” and “compulsory arbitration” between employers and laborers:

(a) In any enterprise where the number of laborers belonging to the minority union reaches a certain percentage, no strike can be proclaimed unless arbitration has previously been proposed to the employer and declined by him. (That percentage, not specified in the London agreement, will have to be fixed by mutual consent between the two parties in Palestine.)

(b) The London Agreement forecasts the creation of an “Economic Conference,” representing all the essential branches of Palestine’s Jewish economy—employers and laborers in equal numbers—whose mission shall be to establish a general “Labor Covenant” embracing fair wages, a neutral Labor Exchange, and obligatory arbitration.

The Revisionist Labor unions, counting at present some 7,000 members, ratified this London agreement on November 24, 1934. The Histadruth with a membership of more than 60,000, submitted the question of ratification to yesterday’s referendum.

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