May Day General Strike in Israel

On May Day, 2003, a general strike shut down Israel.
See http://www.chicago.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=25561&group=webcast, which is a repost from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2987479.stm

The workingclass of Israel on May 1, 2003, general strike consists of the following closures:
Ben Gurion international airport
All ports and border crossings
Hospitals and emergency services working weekend shifts
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
Banks, and ATMs will not be refilled
All government offices
No rubbish collections
No parking tickets to be issued
Radio Reshet Gimmel and IBA television off air
Telephone call centres closed
Israel shut down by general strike
Israeli public sector workers striking
The strike is set to paralyse Israel

About 700,000 public sector workers in Israel have begun an indefinite strike in protest at government plans to cut jobs and wages.

As the strike was ending its first day, Israel's parliament approved the 11bn shekel ($2.4bn; £1.5bn) cutback plan that sparked the dispute.

The industrial action has shut down almost all public services, with the closure of ports, airports, schools and universities, the stock exchange and government offices.

Long queues formed outside banks, as fears grew that cash dispensers would soon run out of money, and chaos broke out at Ben Gurion international airport in the morning as travellers fought to board earlier flights ahead of the closure.

The Histadrut, the country's main labour federation, called for the industrial action after Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unveiled 10% cuts across the board for ministry budgets.

He also said up to one in 10 public sector jobs would go while a number of pension conditions, including the retirement age, would be changed. Other welfare spending is to be slashed.

Histadrut secretary general Amir Peretz said the organisation had decided to press ahead with the protest despite a suicide attack in Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning that killed several people.
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"Binyamin Netanyahu is behaving like a dictator," he told public radio.

Recession

Mr Netanyahu says the austerity measures are needed to tackle the worst recession in the country's 55-year history and reduce a 16bn shekel hole in the country's finances.

"This plan will save the economy. It will bring growth," he told Channel Two television.

Presenting his package to Israel's parliament (Knesset) on Wednesday, while jeered by the opposition, Mr Netanyahu said: "The government's overdraft is growing and international banks have told us they will not give us more money (to finance it)."

He also said the US had made an offer of $9bn in loan guarantees for Israel conditional on the economic plan being implemented.

Parliament voted 56 to 46 in favour of the plan but it faces two more readings before becoming law.

The chairman of the Israeli Chambers of Commerce, Uriel Lynn, told the BBC's World Business Report that the strike would hurt economic recovery.

"This is going to be very damaging to the Israeli economy, it will increase unemployment.

"We will have such a huge deficit in our budget, about 6% of national product. It's really going to shake the stability of our country."

Too severe

The Histadrut has acknowledged that Israel's economy is in tatters after two years of a renewed Palestinian uprising, which has hit key sectors including tourism and construction and slashed tax receipts.

But it says the proposed budget cuts are too severe and has criticised the finance ministry for seeking to force them through by legislation rather than a collective agreement with the once all-powerful unions.

The global downturn has also aggravated the situation, hitting Israel's once lucrative technology exports while security spending has ballooned.

Analysts say Mr Netanyahu is unlikely to make any concessions and that the Knesset will approve the first reading of his proposed budget cuts on Wednesday.

"The Histadrut walked out on the talks, and today we believe we will be vindicated when the budget package passes parliament," said Uri Ginossar, a spokesman for the finance ministry.

Warning

Business leaders have estimated the strike will cost the country 400m shekels a day in the first two days of the strike and 250m shekels a day thereafter.

The 700,000 on strike account for 12% of Israel's population and a much greater percentage of the total workforce.

The finance ministry has said that every month the economic plan is delayed adds 1.5bn shekels to the budget deficit.

Oded Tira, head of the Industrialists' Association, said the strike would "hit private businesses very hard and totally paralyse their exports".