Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini will summon the chairman of the Histadrut's Trade Union Division, the chairman of the Transport Workers Union, and the Trade Union Division's legal adviser, for consultations on summoning Ashdod Port Company Ltd. workers committee chairman Alon Hassan for a disciplinary hearing by the Histadrut. A decision on the issue will be made only after an investigation and subject to Histadrut procedures.
Yesterday, Labor Party chairwoman MK Shelly Yachimovich launched an extraordinary attack on Hassan, and called for his resignation. In a post on her Facebook page, she called on Hassan to resign on the grounds that his conduct gave ammunition to those calling for the elimination of unions.
In response, Hassan said on his Facebook page that, in view of her remarks, he would seek to oust Yachimovich in the upcoming Labor Party primaries.
Interviewed on Channel 2's "Meet the Press" on Saturday night, Hassan commented on an investigation aired on Channel 2 on Friday about companies which he owns that work with Ashdod Port. He claimed that this was an old, recycled investigation, and that the Ashdod Port's board of directors had ruled that there was nothing irregular in his businesses. "There is nothing new in the investigation. This is the recycling of an old report. Everything I do is legal, the Ashdod Port Company and the board of directors examined me and found no conflict of interests. I do my work as the chairman of the workers committee."
Hassan also commented on the claims raised in the investigation that a logistics company which he owns works regularly with the port. He said that the records presented in the investigative report were forgeries. "The Histadrut knows that I have businesses, and if it thought that there was a conflict of interests, then it would have emerged two years ago," he said.
Toward the end of the interview, Hassan said that there were special interests in the government, which were attacking the conduct of the workers committee in order to privatize the port. "The port has been in the headlines for the past two months," he said. "There are some in the government who are doing everything they can to hand over the port, which is worth billions, to the tycoons, just like they handed over the Eilat Port for peanuts, NIS 100 million. That is what they want to do with the Ashdod Port. This trick will not work at the Ashdod Port, and I won't let it happen."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 16, 2013
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2013