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Israeli Unions Strike Less over the Past 20 Years, Study Shows

Strikes are used as a last resort to protect the most vulnerable workers, according to a study by the Arlozorov Forum | Both official and de facto restrictions on the right to strike are impeding Israeli workers from making greater use of the bargaining tool

Osama Amar, a social worker, at a demonstration in 2020. (Photo: Private album)
Osama Amar, a social worker, at a demonstration in 2020. (Photo: Private album)
By Nizzan Zvi Cohen

The most widespread basis for Israeli labor strikes in the last decade has been protecting the rights of underprivileged workers, according to a new study by the Arlozorov Forum. The Arlozorov Forum is a research center for social and economic policy formation.

Strikes and threats to strike have contributed to raising the minimum wage, improving the wages of social workers, increasing safety measures in the construction industry, and reclassifying contract workers as direct employees in Israel. In addition to improving working conditions, strikes were also used to ensure the very existence of the right to organize, the study showed.

Worker strikes have gradually decreased over time. (Graphic: IDEA)
Worker strikes have gradually decreased over time. (Graphic: IDEA)

The study, conducted by researchers Michal Stein and Assaf Bondi, found that in recent decades there has been a trend of fewer workers striking annually and fewer workdays lost to each strike.

In 2003, strikes resulted in 1,357 workdays lost to a strike for every thousand employees. By 2011, 209 workdays were lost for every thousand employees, and by 2019 that number had fallen to only 32 workdays.

2020 has proved an exception to this trend, with an increase in strike days over past years due to the ongoing struggle of social workers to improve their working conditions. Faculty at public colleges also held one of the year’s more significant strikes.

Official data for 2021 have not yet been published, but it is evident that there was not a dramatic increase in the number of workdays lost due to strikes this past year, despite strikes in a number of fields, including communications and healthcare.

In the health care system, which has been dealing with the pandemic for the past two years, nurses went on strike in protest against violence in the workplace. In addition, in 2021, about 13,000 hospital administrative and maintenance workers went on strike, due to extreme workloads and the refusal of the Ministry of Finance to develop protocols to ease the workload.

“Clearly and consistently, Israeli unions are reluctant to strike and prefer to resolve labor disputes in dialogue with employers and with the state,” researchers Stein and Bondi said. “Workers, like employers, understand that the consequences of strikes hurt not only employers but also themselves. This fact leads unions to strike sparingly, almost exclusively in ‘last resort’ situations, but also makes the strike one of the most effective mechanisms for resolving labor disputes.”

While unions in countries like Sweden or Denmark can make almost unlimited use of the right to strike, there are many restrictions for Israeli unions, the researchers found. The report shows that legal restrictions on the right to strike often prevent workers from striking in solidarity or as a means to promote broad social goals. These restrictions on strikes as an expression of solidarity leads to criticism of the right to strike in Israel as a right reserved only for workers who are already relatively secure.

In addition to these legal restrictions on strikes in solidarity, stringent decisions from labor courts result in further diminishment of workers’ ability to strike. When labor courts prohibit strikes in this manner, they often also prolong labor disputes and prevent the parties from reaching a swift resolution.

For example, after port workers attempted to strike in 2013 to protest the effects of proposed reforms on their working conditions, the labor court imposed a seven-year injunction on such a strike. Only after this injunction expired in 2021 were the parties able to sign agreements regarding the reforms. The court’s growing tendency to obstruct the right to strike is therefore impinging on workers’ and employers’ ability to reach resolutions as well as reducing the ability of labor unions to advance social goals.

“The effects of the right to strike and its use in Israel emphasize the vitality of this fundamental right,” said Amit Ben-Tzur, CEO of the Arlozorov Forum. “Those who work to restrict the right to strike actually seek to impair the ability of organized workers to protect vulnerable workers as well as their ability to advance important social goals. A discussion based on facts and professional analysis will help promote public recognition of the enormous importance of this right for Israeli democracy.”

This article was translated from Hebrew by Leah Schwartz.

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