Ashdod Port Company Ltd. is in chaos, after the mechanical equipment workers committee chairman Alon Hassan and operations workers committee chairman Avinoam Shoshan ordered a wildcat strike this morning.
"The port's management is in the midst of tenders for longshoremen," said the Ashdod Port management. "The port needs to hire longshoremen to allow management to improve customer service and reduce waiting times for the loading and unloading of ships. Recently, Hassan and Shoshan have avoided cooperating or attending the hiring committee meetings as required under the labor contract. They are demanding the hiring of worker committee members' relatives. The Government Companies Authority bans the hiring of candidates who are relatives of a serving member of the workers committee."
Ashdod Port's management said that it was determined to pursue the tender, and warned that it would not allow the workers committee "to take the law into its own hands and prevent a special labor contract, in view of the breach of the committees' promise to the Labor Court to carry out the two hiring committees for hiring longshoremen this week. Management has notified Hassan and Shoshan that if the committees' representatives do not appear at the hiring committee, it is required to continue the hiring process of the servers without them."
The wildcat strike at the Ashdod Port is still continuing at this time. The workers committee representatives have not attended the tenders committee meeting, forcing management to convene it without them, with the result that the mechanical equipment and operational equipment workers committee launched a "wildcat strike that is severely disrupting work at the port," as management puts it.
The Ashdod Port management will petition the Labor Court to order an end to the strike, shortly after the court banned the port's workers from striking.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 6, 2014
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