The monthly newsletter of Trade Union Friends of Israel.

International Trade Union News: TULIP, a new global movement is born

Peace Process: Israel-Palestinian Authority trade worth £2.4 billion in 2008

Israeli Industrial News: International campaign to reinstate Israeli rail workers

Israeli Affairs: Job skills training for Israeli-Arab women

Israeli Affairs: Women workers making strides in Israel

Israeli Industrial News: Complaints about abuse at work rise sharply

Israeli Industrial News: Metal factory dispute comes to an end

Israeli Labour Party: Labour party and the Histadrut (Israeli TUC) quash proposed budget cuts

Peace Process: Israeli Prime Minister and US President meet in Washington

Israeli affairs: Israeli Jewish-Arab duo sings for peace at the Eurovision Song Contest

International Trade Union News: TULIP, a new global movement is born
Trade union leaders from three continents officially launched on 21 May a new global movement to fight against boycotts and for positive Israeli-Palestinian trade union co-operation. The movement is called TULIP - Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine – and the leaders are Paul Howes, National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union, Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (USA), and Michael J. Leahy, OBE, General Secretary of Community (UK). They have issued a founding statement and invite those who agree with it to join TULIP online.
Peace Process: Israel-Palestinian Authority trade worth £2.4 billion in 2008
Trade between Israel and the Palestinians reached NIS 15 billion (£2.4 billion) in 2008, NIS 13 billion with the West Bank and NIS 2 billion with Gaza. The head of the Israeli-Palestinian Chamber of Commerce (IPCC), Ofir Gendelman, said Israel-Palestinian trade was increasing and that “economic peace is a part of making peace… trade is something that facilitates trust and political relations.”

The Israeli and Palestinian economies are heavily intertwined; according to a 2006 report by the Peres Centre (The Untapped Potential: Palestinian-Israeli Economic Relations), approximately 90 percent of Palestinian exports are directed at Israel, accounting for approximately 65 percent of Palestinian GDP.
Israeli Industrial News: International campaign to reinstate rail workers
Over 150 Israeli railway workers lost their jobs from Israel Railways following the introduction of a new employment policy which requires employees to have served in the army. The Histadrut (Israeli TUC) has called the new policy discriminatory as Arab Israelis and orthodox Jews are exempt from serving. Avital Shapira-Shabirow, director of Histadrut’s international relations department said: “This policy harms both Jewish and Arab Israelis and was decided without any consultation either with the Histadrut or the union representing the guards”.

Members of the National Union of Rail Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) have joined an international campaign to press for the reinstatement of the rail workers. On 11 May, RMT’s general secretary, Bob Crow, said: “The decision to make military service an employment condition contradicts Israel’s own Employment (Equal Opportunities) Act 1988. That position has been upheld in a number of court decisions, which have judged the employment condition of military service as discrimination based on nationality, and it should now be honoured in the case of the Arab rail workers and their notices of dismissal withdrawn”.
Israeli Affairs: Job skills training for Israeli-Arab women
Hundreds of Israeli-Arab women have signed up to this year’s “Sharikat Haya” (Life Partners) initiative, an annual job skills and training program that aims to help Arab women, between the ages of 20 and 45, entre the job market. The program is run by The Abraham Fund, a non-governmental organisation based in Jerusalem that works to advance social inclusion and equality for all Israeli citizens. Over half of the women who participated in the initiative last year have found secure, full-time employment.

Israeli Affairs: Women workers making strides in Israel
The Israeli Movement of Working Women and Volunteers (NA’AMAT), an organisation focused on enhancing the quality of life for Israeli women, has said that the situation for Israeli women in the work place is improving. Masha Lubelsky, the former president of NA’AMAT said on 8 May that there had been many gains, such as:

· Employers sharing the cost of on-site day-care centres;

· Companies making sure women comprise 20 percent of their boards;

· Committees set up in the workplace charged with looking into complaints of sexual harassment;

· More than 50 percent of Israel’s women in the workforce; and,

· Tax relief for expenses related to child care.
Israeli Industrial News: Complaints about abuse at work rise sharply
The number of complaints received by Kav La’Oved Worker’s Hotline about employment terms jumped twenty percent in April. Kav La’Oved, the not-for-profit organisation dedicated to protecting the rights of workers employed in Israel, attributed the significant spike to the economic crisis.

Kav La’Oved has traditionally been involved with protecting vulnerable workers such as asylum seekers, Palestinians and new immigrants, but the director, Hanna Zohar, said on 8 May that they were now seeing complaints from middle-class workers employed in high-tech and other well-established industries. He said the economic crisis had bred a particularly “draconian kind of abuse” of workers’ rights, such as forcing unpaid holiday leave on employees, reducing the amount of time allowed for breaks and increasing the number of hours without additional pay.
Israeli Industrial News: Metal factory dispute comes to an end
A labour dispute at an Israeli metal factory came to an end on 15 May after the Histadrut and the factory’s union signed an agreement with the management. The Histadrut declared the dispute after the Hanita factory, located in the northern town of Shlomi, announced it would lay off 32 of its 270 workers. Under the agreement, only 20 will be dismissed and they will receive enhanced compensation, totalling 170 to 270 percent of their monthly salaries and extra severance pay.

Seven more employees will take early retirement and the company will pay them a monthly pension equal to 70 percent of their last salary until they reach the legal retirement age of 67. Hanita union chairman Ayman Fellah, expressed satisfaction with the agreement. He said: “The agreement that was signed ensures the dignified departure of 27 of the factory’s workers on one hand, and on the other hand, creates hope for the factory’s continued existence and a more promising future.”
Israeli Labour Party: Labour party and the Histadrut (Israeli TUC) quash proposed budget cuts
The Israeli cabinet approved the country’s 2009-2010 Budget on 13 May after days of deliberations. Israeli Defence Minister and Labour party chairman Ehud Barak, Minister of Welfare and Social Services Isaac Herzog (Labour) and Histadrut (Israeli TUC) chairman Ofer Eini all welcomed the deal after NIS 4 billion (£640 million) worth of cuts advocated by the treasury were scrapped. Negotiations from 7 to 12 May between Eini, Ori Yogev (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior economic advisor) and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz resulted in the welfare allocation being NIS 2.5 million (£400,000) above that originally proposed. Herzog said:

“Most of the cuts of social services were removed… The welfare ministry succeeded in receiving meaningful additional funds for the weaker population, including disabled people, autistic people, at-risk children and people with learning disabilities.” (13/05/09)

Peace Process: Israeli Prime Minister and US President meet in Washington
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu met US president Barack Obama in Washington DC on 18 May for their first meeting since both took office. Mr Obama restated his support for a two-state plan and said Israel had an obligation under the 2003 “roadmap” to stop Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Mr Obama also said the US would be “engaged” in the peace process and emphasised a regional approach where all Arab states would recognise Israel in return for the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israeli affairs: Israeli Jewish-Arab duo sings for peace at the Eurovision Song Contest
An Israeli Jewish-Arab duo represented Israel at the Eurovision Song Contest final in Moscow, finishing 16th out of 25. Jewish Achinoam Nini and Arab Mira Awad performed “There Must Be Another Way,” an appeal for peace sung in Arabic, Hebrew and English. The pair said that they hoped to raise awareness of Israelis and Palestinians in favour of a two state solution. Prior to the contest, Nini and Awad said that they did not care if they were placed last, so long as they got their message across. Paul McCartney sent the pair a letter, congratulating the duo for advancing peace.