Summary
One of the transnational oil companies operating in Palestine, alongside the Iraq Petroleum Company and Shell; its employees’ countrywide strike of late April 1946, launched jointly by the Histadrut and the Arab Workers’ Congress over the Palestine Arab Workers Society’s refusal, poisoned relations between the PAWS and the Histadrut in the petroleum sector (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 3965-3971).
Details
- The Histadrut’s clerical workers’ union had organized many of the Jewish employees at Socony Vacuum and the other oil companies, and also had close (if covert) ties with some of the Arab clerical and other workers in this sector (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3969).
- Sami Taha claimed the Histadrut had called the strike unilaterally at a time when he was still conducting negotiations with management; the Histadrut denounced the PAWS as an agent of the oil companies and tried, in de facto alliance with the AWC, to shut the PAWS out of contract negotiations (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3969).
- Most of Socony Vacuum’s Arab workers seem to have supported the strike, except in Haifa, where the PAWS was strongest and persuaded many workers to stay at their jobs; the strike lasted twelve days and resulted in some gains for the workers (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3971).
- Company management invited the PAWS to sign the new contract as well, which made it possible for Taha to claim his negotiations, rather than the strike, had yielded the results; it was nonetheless clear Taha had suffered a humiliating defeat (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3971).
- It was the Histadrut’s links with Arab white-collar workers at Socony Vacuum which had made an effective strike there possible in the face of the PAWS’ opposition, and the episode fed the Histadrut’s renewed interest in direct links with Arab workers in the “international sector” (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3971).
Related pages
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Iraq Petroleum Company, Consolidated Refineries Limited, Palestine Arab Workers Society, Arab Workers’ Congress, Histadrut