Up to one hundred contract typists from for
the Israeli postal service 'Do`ar
The reason for the protest was the workers’
deep anger and disgust at the role of the Histadrut leadership’s betrayal of
their struggle. The workers are fighting for permanent job status, an end to
sweatshop conditions and against bullying by management, who refer to workers
as “retards”.
Both Israeli Jewish and Arabs are part of the
workforce. Many of them have been on temporary contracts for up to 15 years, as
is increasingly the case for many Israeli workers, employed by profit-hungry,
exploitative manpower agencies. These workers are paid according to how many
letters they process rather than by the hours they work. Most of the workers
bring home around
The Histadrut trade union federation always
claimed to be against manpower agencies, which now employ up to 10% of Israeli
workers. However, they have not organised a serious struggle against them. Even
worse, the Histadrut signed an agreement with the manpower agencies three years
ago which takes a percentage out of the salary of every contract workers in the
country. This applies to these postal workers as well but they are not even
recognised as full members of the Histadrut. The present leader of the
Histadrut, Ofer Eyni, promised the federation would fight for permanent status
for the postal service workers. However, the Histadrut did nothing to fulfil
its promise. The Histadrut leadership made a deal, last year, with the postal
service management, which stipulates workers would not be recognised as
permanent staff, if any legal action for recognition was taken out by the
workforce.
The workers, many of them women, overcame
their fear of being sacked for taking part in a protest during work-time, and
decided to take their struggle to the plush headquarters of the Histadruth
trade union bureaucracy.
A big crowd of workers gathered outside the
Histadrut headquarters, chanting slogans, “The Histadrut is the home of the
workers but Eyni’s clique is ruining it!” and “For a Histadrut of workers not
of go-getters”. After a short time, workers’ anger boiled over, and they
marched into the building to demand a meeting with Eyni. The massive doors to
Eyni’s office were locked and the workers were told that he was not in the
building. There were unconfirmed rumours that he was in fact in the building
but did not want to meet the workers.
Another Histadrut leader, Jihad Akel, who is
an Israeli Arab member of the Communist Party organisation, Hadash, came out to
speak to the protesters. Hadash is part of the coalition leading the Histadrut.
Akel said he supported their struggle and rejected the manpower agencies. But
he gave full support to the Histadrut leader Eyni. The workers had heard all
this before and chanted “Eyni - a traitor. Do workers not count?”
Akel accused the workers of turning up at
Histadrut headquarters under the instruction of the mail service management.
Incredibly, when one of the Israeli Arab postal workers protested against this
smear, he was told to shut up by the Hisradrut leader.
The workers demanded more than just empty
promises of action. After a while, the Histadrut leadership promised to have a
series of meetings with the workers to discuss a campaign to wing them
permanent job status.
Yesterday’s protest at the Histadrut
headquarters got favourable cover on the main evening TV news. Further protests
are planned.
The contract postal service workers are
extremely exploited and face a vicious management. Maavak Sotzialisti (CWI)
appeals to trade union activists and socialists around the world to urgently
send solidarity messages to doar@maavak.org.il