Communications Minister David Pinkas convened a meeting tonight of high officials of the Ministry of Communications, maritime experts and legal advisors to consider the current seamen’s strike which has paralyzed Israel’s merchant fleet and piled up thousands of tons of goods in the port of Haifa.
“I am doing everything possible to liquidate the strike and return the situation to normal within 24 hours, ” Minister Pinkas told the press today. Tonight’s meeting of officials will be paralleled by a session of the Histadrut central committee which will consider ways and means of compelling the seamen to return to their vessels.
The strike of the seamen developed as a result of a dispute between their union and the Histadrut. The seamen insist upon the right to form a completely independent union with separate hiring offices, like other trades. At present the labor federation exercises direct control over the mariners.
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