Summary
The joint forum founded in late December 1979 by the heads of the most powerful, directly elected worker committees in Israel’s state-owned firms, after the Histadrut called off its planned general strike against Treasury Minister Yigal Horowitz’s wage-freeze policy; in Grinberg’s account it was a peculiar resistance mo(ve)ment that balanced state and employer power without challenging the Histadrut’s monopoly, and secretly had Histadrut Secretary General Yeruham Meshel’s support (Moments of Resistance, PDF p.195-200).
Details
- Its members are listed as IAI, IEC, El-Al ground crews, Post-Engineering, the Israel Broadcasting Authority, Dead Sea Works, the Airports Authority, the Merchant Fleet Officers Union, the Longshoremen Union, Israel Ports, the Israel Association of General Aviation, and the Israeli Radiographers Union — twelve names for the thirteen committees, as printed; private-industry and Histadrut employees were deliberately excluded as too dependent on the Histadrut (PDF p.198).
- The committees shared direct, non-partisan election, mostly industry-level wage-negotiating privilege, average-to-high wages, and — as government-firm employees, most with security clearance and necessarily Jewish citizens — insulation from the threat of replacement by unorganized labour (PDF p.198-199).
- Its 24-hour strike in January 1980, immobilizing exports, was aimed at the political goal of recognition as the workers’ representative rather than immediate economic objectives; thereafter the threat of a strike sufficed to force employers to negotiate, and hundreds of thousands joined the Histadrut’s May 1, 1980 protest it backed (PDF p.199-200).
- After the July 1980 Framework Agreements it pursued its own members’ gains, clashed with Horowitz and thwarted a wage-restraining package deal; the movement ended when Horowitz was replaced by Yoram Aridor before the 1981 elections and strong public workers were no longer targeted as the economy’s “problem” (PDF p.200-202).
- In 1985 Histadrut Secretary General Israel Keisar neutralized it as an independent organization by renewing the alliance with the powerful committees openly, in direct collaboration with himself, during the Emergency Economic Stabilization Plan (PDF p.210-211).
- Grinberg’s underlying account is Split Corporatism: the Forum’s action empowered the Histadrut as workers’ representative and prevented its tendency to undermine workers’ interests, without demanding institutional change in it (PDF p.200).
Related pages
Moments of Resistance, Histadrut, Split Corporatism, Movements of Resistance, Emergency Economic Stabilization Plan