The decision to import tens of thousands of Chinese construction workers has not brought housing prices down, but it has already notched up a rare achievement: it has forged agreement between Shelly Yachimovich and Amir Levy, head of the Ministry of Finance Budgets Division. It has created unanimity between the Bank of Israel and socially oriented economists on the one hand, and the neo-liberal economists of the National Economic Council on the other, not to mention between the Kav LaOved workers' rights organization and the Attorney General.
The headlines about fears of breaches of the Chinese workers' rights completely miss the real victims of this wretched decision: Israeli and Palestinian construction workers. 173,000 Israelis, 75,000 of them Arabs and the rest Jews; 37,000 Palestinians, and another 8,000 who were due to join them. Tens of thousands of them are now exposed to wage reductions and worsening of their conditions, to the point of losing their jobs altogether. Tens of thousands of children are now liable to grow up in families in which the main breadwinner is unemployed, or cannot earn a decent living.
What will that do to the Israeli Arabs who have succeeded at the cost of such effort in becoming part of the labor market? What will that do to the Palestinians in the Territories, where the Islamic movements await them with job offers of a quite different kind?
Another Mercedes, another Rolex
In the Israel of 2015, there is a great deal of talk about the concerns over control of Israeli insurance companies passing into Chinese hands, but when it comes to the hands of construction workers, it's seen as something natural. Make no mistake. Through the decision passed by the government, the prime minister and the minister of finance sold out the employment future of the Israeli and Palestinian construction workers, for the sake of the hope of some temporary relief in the shortage of building starts, a vague and doubtful hope.
In 2007, when the wave of housing price rises had just begun, 30,000 foreign construction workers worked here, and residential buildings took 24-26 months to complete. Where did the cost savings go? Ask the friends of housing cabinet chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki.
The contractors, agents, and those close to the levers of power stand to make a killing from the government's decision. Kahlon will fix them the second Mercedes, another Rolex, at the expense of the income of thousands of Israeli blue-collar workers and craftsmen, who are trying to earn a decent living. This "achievement" will cling for years to the record of a person who presents himself as a socially minded finance minister.
And the economy? The rise in employment and the narrowing of earnings gaps have been the only rays of light in the Israeli economy in the past few years. Yitzkahi makes no secret of the fact that the 20,000 workers from China are just the start. He is already talking about 40,000 and maybe more. The employers will now stand in line to get the Chinese workers from Yitzhaki's horn of plenty: the ports, the railways, the builders and the plumbers. The wages will go to China, the agency fees will go to the guys in the SUVs, and the Israelis who don't have degrees in law or accounting will go to join the line at the Employment Bureaus.
What about the building industry? The importation of workers from China will again allow the government to shirk a thorough overhaul. This industry drags the entire economy down because of its low level of industrialization, leading to miserable productivity. The government talks about professional training and about introducing advanced construction methods, but does nothing. The blame is laid on the spoilt Israeli worker and the lazy Palestinian, who gets up at 3 am every day in order to turn up to work on time.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 21, 2015
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