The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) workers committee extended Thursday morning's strike to the entire session, and the strike may last even longer. The workers committee stated, "Management will have to learn to stop lying to journalists and the public and we will shut down trading until it learns."
Today's strike brought the month-long industrial quiet to an end. This is the first full strike at the TASE since the 1990s, not simply sanctions of the kind earlier this year.
On Thursday morning, the workers committee announced that it would go on strike until 12:30, claiming that TASE CEO Esther Levanon had "grossly violated all the agreements reached."
The workers committee added, "Instead of negotiations which would bring an end to the labor dispute, as agreed, the CEO exploited the return to normalcy to fly abroad immediately after the discussion with the Histadrut chairman, and without giving any mandate to her staff. We take a severe view of the CEO's disregard and dismissal of the explicit agreement with the Histadrut chairman. Regrettably, we can no longer sit idly by in the face of the resulting reality."
In the five weeks before the Passover holiday, labor sanctions at the TASE resulted in short trading sessions that ended at 2:15 pm. After Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini intervened in the dispute, the parties reached an agreement on May 18, which the workers committee now claims has been violated by the TASE management.
The TASE management said in response to the morning strike, "We are astonished by the strike in view of the fact that the issue of labor relations had already been agreed upon and the outstanding issue is the employees' exorbitant salary demands."
In response to this statement, the TASE workers committee extended the morning strike to the entire session. The workers committee claims that Levanon said that she would not meet with it and that the workers committee had refused to discuss the salary issue until an agreement on outside employees and outsourcing was reached. The workers committee said, "How can they invent such a thing - it's a lie."
Sources at the TASE told "Globes" that the employees' salary demands include a 51% pay hike over three years and an annual bonus of six salaries.
Histadrut Tel Aviv District chairman Gershon Gelman claims that the TASE employees' demands for a pay hike were normal for the banking sector. When "Globes" asked him how long the strike would last, he replied, "There's no end date for the strike at this time. When deciding to initiate an action like a strike, we know when it begins, but not when it ends. The renewal of negotiations and the signing of so many understandings and principles achieved five weeks ago regarding types of employment at the TASE will bring the workers back to regular work."
A former TASE employee told "Globes", "TASE employees are far from poverty-stricken." She pointed to their employment terms, including newspaper subscriptions, childcare coverage, protection against being fired and tenure after two years, and an annual bonus irrespective of the TASE's performance. "In 2006, I received a bonus amounting to 5.5 monthly salaries," she said.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 19, 2008
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