Tel Aviv District Court Vice President Varda Alshech today ordered "Ma'ariv" employees to return to work, after they went on strike yesterday evening. The Hebrew daily did not print today's edition - the first time that this has happened in its 64-year history.
"A strike during a creditors' settlement is much like sawing off the branch the workers are sitting on, and is liable to result in the liquidation of the company," said Judge Alshech. "It's very hard to understand this sudden act taken by the employees. The right way would have been to petition the court, and not to take the law into their own hands."
Alshech said that "Ma'ariv's" employees acted against the law and criticized their attorneys for failing to influence the employees from making this wildcat strike. She said that the newspaper was greatly harmed by the failure to publish today's edition, and that, in the balance, the employees would have suffered no harm had they postponed their industrial action. She therefore ordered the employees to return to the negotiating table.
Employees: Cancel sale to Ben-Tzvi
"Ma'ariv" employees are also organizing a petition, independently of the workers committee, to petition the court to cancel the sale of the newspaper to Shlomo Ben-Tzvi and it transfer to "Jerusalem Post" publisher Eli Azur, who also bid for the paper, instead. The employees argue that the workers committee lacked the authority to sign an agreement with Ben-Tzvi, and that "Ma'ariv's" new publisher was breaking up the newspaper and turning it into "Makor Rishon", which he also owns.
Senior "Ma'ariv" correspondent Ben Caspit told "Globes", "If the petition reaches me, I'll sign it."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 7, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012