29 September, 2016IndustriALL Global Union has written to the CEO of the state-owned Israel Natural Gas Lines (INGL) calling on the company to respect labour rights and negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with IndustriALL affiliate Histadrut.
INGL, which is one of Israel’s most profitable government-owned companies, has unilaterally suspended all wage negotiations, imposed a pay freeze on workers, and introduced a number of draconian measures that include banning workers from driving on toll roads and cancelling workers’ travel time.
Over the past four months the labour dispute at INGL has escalated as management has deliberately procrastinated in negotiations with Histadrut, which have been taking place without results for more than two years.
In the meantime, INGL is expanding outsourcing at the company and contracting out core positions, such as gas technicians and electricians. INGL refuses demands from employees' representatives to absorb contract workers into direct employment, many of whom are employed continuously for many years, in breach of Israeli employment law.
INGL supplies gas to all private power stations in Israel and most of those owned by the Israel Electric Corporation. Seventy per cent of all electricity produced in Israel is generated using natural gas.
Histadrut members have fought back by suspending the connection of the company’s Sodom 2 station to the national gas network since 14 September. They also prevented the connection of Kiryat Gat to the distribution network and stopped work at the Hagit station in Eliakim for one week.
On 22 September workers used their vehicles to block the entrance to the Sodom station after they found that management had changed the locks on the site’s gates to prevent them from entering. The Sodom station is currently under construction and set to stream natural gas to Jordan in a billion dollar deal signed earlier this year.
In retaliation to the stoppage at Hagit, INGL brought in contract workers in serious violation of gas safety procedures.
David Galanos, Chairman of the Energy Workers’ Union of Histadrut, said: "The Histadrut gives full support to INGL employees, and together with them we will continue to act to regulate their rights in a collective agreement. It is not possible that a management, let alone of a government company, will treat its employees in this way. I call on the company's management headed by Samuel Tordjman to stop its actions and to quickly resolve through dialogue the issues that are in dispute, for the benefit of all the parties."
Read the letter to INGL CEO Samuel Tordjman here.