Isranet
The picture shows Finance Minister Avraham Shohat ( L ) and Histadrut
general secretary Amir Peretz holding a framed copy of the signed
agreement that settled the general strike this afternoon. ( 3 G6 )
The general strike, that brought most of the public sector to a
standstill and virtually halted imports and exports for the past ten
days, was settled this afternoon when the Finance Ministry and the
Histadrut came to an agreement to give public sector workers a one time
payment of $300 plus a rise in their monthly wage of 3.6%. The
Histadrut trade federation further agreed not to strike again for the
next six months, while negotiations are proceeding for a permanent
long-term agreement. Local authorities have still not signed the
agreement, saying that they do not have the money to pay higher wages
without raising local taxes. Garbage collection in the three main
cities of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa remained uncollected for the
past week, necessitating the labor court to issue back to work orders
for striking sanitation workers in order to protect public health. The
main page of the signed agreement was framed by Peretz so that it could
be clearly seen by any new finance minister if there is a change due to
next week's election.
