Poultry processor Off Haemek's 200 employees were told on Friday that, "There is no point coming to work on Sunday" because they will be receiving dismissal notices in the coming few days. This latest notification to the employees of the Off Haemek factory in Ramat Yeshai near Haifa, comes several days after the plant's management responded positively to a request by Histadrut head Ofer Eini and agreed to postpone the dismissals in a final attempt to find an investor to save the factory.
In response to the failure of attempts to save the factory, the workers decided to barricade themselves into the plant, block the gates using chicken coops, burn tires and sleep overnight there in protest.
Eini has been attempting to find investors on behalf of the factory's management and even spoke with the Ministry of Finance's Budget Director Ram Belnikov on the matter. A review of Off Haemek by the Histadrut showed that debts to banks, suppliers, employees and other bodies amounted to between NIS 30-40 million and not the NIS 10 million as originally thought. One of the explanations is that the company encountered difficulties after it began marketing "organic chickens," which use no antibiotics, and which is considered a high-priced quality product. The recession and resulting fall in sales meant heavy losses piled up and employees did not receive their January salary.
Off Haemek workers committee chairman Motti Saar said, "We feel a certain kind of indifference towards our plight in recent days. The Histadrut cannot save us by itself. The feeling is that somebody has forgotten that Ramat Yeshai is in Israel. 200 workers are going home and it looks like the chickens in the slaughterhouse are more concerned about it."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 8, 2009
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