The Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) workers committee today asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to block the sale of the company to Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. (NYSE; TSX: POT), because it would cause economic disaster to the Negev. The workers committee asked for an urgent meeting with Netanyahu to discuss contacts between the government and Potash Corporation.
"The sale of the controlling interest in Israel Chemicals is liable to have an immediate direct impact on thousands of families, and a severe indirect impact on industry in the Negev, up to the transfer of some production lines abroad, harming employees in the Negev in general, and Israel Chemicals employees and their families in particular," said the workers committee in the letter to the prime minister.
"We, the Israel Chemicals workers committee, ask you on behalf of the more than 5,000 employees directly employed by Israel Chemicals, and on behalf of the 20,000-25,000 households indirectly employed by Israel Chemicals, to prevent the sale of the controlling interest in Israel Chemicals to Canada's Potash Corporation."
"According to media reports, there are contacts between the Israeli government, which owns the golden share, and Potash Corporation to approve the sale of the controlling interest in Israel Chemicals. If this is true, Mr. Prime Minister, we ask you to block this possibility."
The letter concludes, "Although the sale of the controlling interest in the company would bring in a lot of money to the Treasury, but it would mean the loss of control of state resources, take the employees' fates out of the hands of a Zionist and Israeli party, abandoning the employees' fates and country's resources to foreign decisions that are not dependent on internal Israeli considerations, but look to the profits of the foreign company."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 28, 2012
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