Some 1,000 Egged bus drivers in the Jerusalem region began striking early this morning, shutting down public transport services throughout much of the city. The drivers are also disrupting inter-city services by blocking Jerusalem central bus station.
Egged has brought in drivers from elsewhere in the country as well as mobilizing drivers from its Egged Tours subsidiary in order to reduce the damage to services. Egged hopes that inter-city services will resume on schedule, after the police have cleared drivers that are demonstrating in front of the bus station entrance.
The strike is about pay and the NIS 1,000-1,500 monthly premium that the capital's drivers receive on top of their NIS 39 per hour. The Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) said that the strike reflects a lack of progress in negotiations on the matter as well as a stalemate on talks about an early retirement program and government subsidies for bus services in the capital.
Public Transport Association CEO Gil Yaakov has asked Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz to punish Egged for the strike by excluding the company from the tenders for new express bus routes out of Jerusalem.
Egged spokesman Ron Ratner called on the bus drivers to stop the strike and return to work immediately and avert the unnecessary harm they are causing the public.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 4, 2017
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