On Sunday, February 12, the Israel trade union confederation Histadrut brough a five day general strike for contract workers to an end, with the signature of an agreement with the government. The strike had affected government ministries, local authorities, banks, transport services, ports, etc.
The general strike had been called as a protest against the widespread use of subcontracting in the Israeli labour market, both in the private and public sectors of the economy. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli workers are contracted through work agencies fulfilling a wide variety of roles, from cleaning and security services to social workers.
Before launching the general strike, Histadrut had already signed a deal with the main organisation of the private sector bosses, Coordinating Bureau of Economic Organisations, which included three main points:
- Direct employment of all contract workers employed in professions which are at the core of the employer's occupation (after 9 months of employment)
- Equalization of wages and work conditions between contract workers not absorbed into direct employment and workers employed directly in the business.
- Direct employment of some of the cleaners
As we already pointed out, while being an improvement in the conditions of contract workers, this agreement was weak in two respects. In relation to “workers employed in professions which are at the core of employers’ occupation”, the 9 months limit for the use of contract workers can be easily be circumvented by the employers by sacking workers before the 9 month period is up and replacing them with other workers. In relation to the rest of the workers, only a very small minority are to be actually directly hired, even though their conditions will certainly improve.
In relation to the public sector, the deal signed seems to be more or less what was already on offer from the government before the beginning of the strike, that is, an improvement in terms and conditions but no real change in the contract system. The real number of workers who will be immediately absorbed into the public sector is extremely limited. Histadrut talks of “a few hundred,” and the papers have used the figure of 800, cleaners in state hospitals and in Welfare Ministry centres (read the full text of the Histadrut statement)
For the rest of the contract workers, and we are talking about tens if not hundreds of thousands, the terms are more ambiguous. The explanation of the agreement published by Histadrut describes it in the following terms:
“Direct employment - "shoulder to shoulder" clause on all the public sector that will abolish the phenomenon. These are workers employed "shoulder to shoulder" next to their directly employed friends in the same workplace in the same job. After nine months of work it will be decided by a parity committee, joint to representatives of the Histadrut and the state, whether the employee should be absorbed. If not absorbed it is not permissible to bring a different worker in his/her place.”
If this was to be implemented in full it would really mean a massive change, however, the important point here is that there is no automatic clause for bringing any of these workers directly into the public sector. The state will certainly resort to all sorts of tricks and legal loopholes to avoid implementing this clause. If this really means that workers will be directly hired, then, why wait 9 months (many workers now have been working as contracted for longer than that), why make the decision dependent on a committee? This only affects workers in more skilled jobs (as opposed to the cleaners and security staff who make up the bulk of contracted workers in the public sector).
The agreement talks of linking wages and conditions of contract workers in the security and cleaning services to the collective bargaining agreement of public sector workers. This would mean a big improvement in the conditions and wages of these workers, but would still leave them with no job security which was the main issue that the strike was supposed to be highlighting.
Finally there is a no-strike clause for contract workers in the agreement. The details of this are unclear, as the bourgeois newspapers claim this would prevent Histadrut from calling another general strike over the issue of contract workers, but Histadrut puts a different spin to it. This is what they say: “contract workers (cleaning and security) and the workers committees will be able to continue to struggle and even strike for direct employment in the workplaces without limit … The industrial peace for three years will apply only to wage demands. “ The key words here are “in the workplace”, which would seem to indicate that Histadrut leaders have agreed not to call a general strike for the next three years, leaving the struggle over contract workers down to the individual workplaces, thus weakening their power.
While there are certainly important improvements in wages and conditions, it seems that the gains are not proportionate with the action taken. An all out general strike lasting 5 days just to achieve 800 permanent jobs does not seem to be worth it. This reminds us of the old nursery rhyme about the Grand Old Duke of York who marched ten thousand men up to the top hill … and then marched down again!
Commenting on the results of the strike, Haaretz columnist Avirama Golan had this to say: “The large and intimidating general strike, which turned into a barely perceptible mini-strike, has given rise to a new reality, one that has done well by some subcontracted workers but has also whitewashed the practice of using such workers in the first place.”
A statement by the Communist Party of Israel pointed out that this had been “a justified general strike with poor achievements.”
However, the deal does not mean the that the struggle over contract workers is over, far from it. There is already talk of social workers, psychologists, teachers and others going out on strike over this issue and railway workers have started a wildcat strike on February 13 precisely on the issue of subcontracting of the maintenance of the trains. Railway workers defied a court order to go back to work by 9 am on the morning of February 14.
The immediate trigger of the railway workers’ strike was the decision of the company to porivatise the maintenance of hundreds of rail cars to Canadian maker Bombardier, while the unions demand that the work be done in-house. “"The management is leaving maintenance work to those same companies that are responsible for all of the trains' malfunctions over the last two years," said the statement from the union. The union is also demanding negotiations over the conditions of hundreds of railway employees who are on such low wages that they have to supplement them with benefits to make it up to the minimum salary. The mood of the workers is very angry and they have not only refused the labour court injunction against the strike but also defied Histadrut's instructions to go back to work.
See also: Israel: unions launch general strike for contract workers