It is still too early to tell whether or not a general strike will take place tomorrow, but one thing is already clear: in the negotiations with the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) for a wage agreement, Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon has acted in a more sophisticated and cleverer way than his predecessors. This was evident at the press conference he convened in his Tel Aviv office today. Kahlon appeared at ease, and his aides were smiling. "The Histadrut thought we were only proposing differential pay rises for tactical purposes," Ministry of Finance sources said. "Yesterday, they realized that we were serious."
The Ministry of Finance's theory of warfare advocates attacking the Histadrut and portraying it as concerned only about the economically advantaged workers' committees. Former Minister of Finance Yair Lapid and his predecessors unhesitatingly mouthed the professional echelon's line. They attacked the Histadrut, while the Histadrut leaders wailed about the fate of the disadvantaged workers and inefficiency in the public sector. They eventually found common ground in the middle of the road, without making any real change in the economy's distorted salary structure.
Kahlon took a more sophisticated tack, without slogans or harsh words, but with a serious and hard-to-refuse proposal. In the initial stage, he took the issue of long-term care insurance, a difficult one for him, off the table. He had to show great generosity to the Histadrut, but thereby deprived it of the ability to use the economically disadvantaged as a weapon to justify the struggle for the salary of the unionized workers. In the negotiations themselves, Kahlon is perceived as more socially conscious than the socially conscious. All Histadrut chairman Avi Nissenkorn had left in his arsenal was the cry, "The workers can't make ends meet" a cry more correct for the social workers and security guards, and far less for employees at the Bank of Israel and the ports. What about workers in the business sector? They will have to fend for themselves, without Kahlon or Nissenkorn.
As of web posting, it appears that the strike will not take place, because the gaps between the sides do not involve matters of principle. Kahlon's main achievement is the Histradrut's consent to the inclusion of a differential element in the wage increment, even if only a partial one. The problematic significance for Nissenkorn is that on the eve of elections, tens of thousands of high-paid workers will receive a smaller raise than former Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini got for them in 2008. In order to appease the expected anger, Nissenkorn will have to sweat in the coming hours to increase the pie that the workers will receive. Nissenkorn has apparently won a considerable achievement in this struggle - the Ministry of Finance has agreed to increase the aggregate wage increment to NIS 7.5 billion.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 22, 2015
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