Summary
The Palestinian Arab contractor who held the quarry concession at the Nesher Cement Factory and whose Arab quarry workers struck against him repeatedly — in 1925, in 1932-33 against his wage cut and lockout, and again in 1936 (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 2377-2405).
Details
- Al-Shaqifi employed only Arabs at the Nesher quarry, by the early 1930s recruited mainly from villages in the area; they received 8 to 12 piastres for a workday of twelve or thirteen hours, lived in company-owned shacks at the site while their families remained in their villages, and were compelled to buy groceries at inflated prices from a store he owned (lines 2377-2394).
- When he announced a wage cut at the end of September 1932 some 150 quarry workers struck; after eighteen days he offered substantial concessions — a nine-hour day, 12.5 piastres rising to a promised 15, freedom from the company store, negotiation with the workers’ elected committee and a joint labour-management disputes committee (lines 2377-2394).
- He had no intention of respecting the agreement: he hired large numbers of new workers signed up as Palestine Arab Workers Society members, favoured them while harassing the veteran Palestine Labor League workers, and in April 1933 locked out the 130 PLL workers, offering re-employment only if they bought their own implements and paid for their own medical examinations. In the six-week struggle he at one point went into hiding in Nazareth to avoid pressure to negotiate; Nesher management ultimately compelled him to negotiate by threatening to cancel his contract. The arbitrator restored almost all the strikers and ruled for them on some demands, but al-Shaqifi ignored most of the rulings and, with harassment and firings, destroyed the PLL’s local base (lines 2388-2405).
- In January 1936 the PAWS led a one-week strike against him (16 piastres for an eight-hour day, abolition of heavy fines, an end to harassment, the right to live where they wished); he signed an agreement with the PAWS but as before failed to honour it, and further brief strikes in February-March 1936 by the 325 quarry workers ended inconclusively (lines 2395-2405).
Related pages
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Nesher Cement Factory, Palestine Labor League, Palestine Arab Workers Society