With trade union membership dropping in the UK and the US (for a number of reasons), there is davka one developed country where organized labor is expanding at what may be the fastest rate in the world.
Israel.
As Haaretz reported this month:
Israel has union fever. In the first five months of 2013 alone 60% more workers organized than in all of 2012, and the number of new union locals established between January and May has already surpassed last year.
According to union figures, more than 21,000 newly unionized workers formed around 40 locals or branches. In 2012, itself a record-breaking year, 13,284 workers organized in 39 workplaces. In 2011 national unions organized 12,165 employees into 22 locals.
Mounting concerns over living costs, job security, pension security and growing economic inequality are thought to be behind the upturn in unionizing in Israel. Employees of the Hot cable television provider, represented by the Koach La Ovdim union, recently made headlines in their fight against management’s plan to switch them to working for outside contractors. Workers at Paz Oil Company chose to rejoin the Histadrut Labor Federation, 19 years after leaving Israel’s umbrella organization for organized labor.
In the past week alone three groups joined unions or began the process: employees of McDonald’s, the Knesset’s 200 parliamentary aides and the 300 adjunct faculty members of the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. One-third of the Knesset aides and the college teachers joined the union, enough to gain union representation.
In the year to date 8,000 workers in 23 organizations have joined the Histadrut, including 6,000 at Cellcom, which is still in the process of forming a local. A new labor federation targeting young workers called Hareshet – Histadrut Hatze’erim B’Israel has signed up 7,400 members since it began operations late last year. Among the “shops” it has organized so far are local burger chains Agadir and Burger Ranch, where a collective bargaining agreement has been signed.
In terms of relative population, that would be like US unions organizing 830,000 workers in five months– in today’s political and economic environment, an unimaginable feat.
Histadrut labor federation officials attribute the surge in unionizing to the bullying of workers by companies such as like Hot, Pelephone and Clal Insurance. Tactics to prevent workers from organizing, such as towing away their leased cars, monitoring their movements and filming organizing meetings have backfired in many cases, they say, increasing employees’ willingness to join unions.
A January ruling by the National Labor Court, presided over by Judge Nili Arad, prohibiting employers from harassing or monitoring employees to dissuade them from organizing has also contributed to the newfound popularity of organized labor. The ruling bars employers from using scare tactics or threatening to fire workers for organizing, and even prohibits management from expressing opinions that are critical of unionizing efforts.
Another possible reason for the union trend is a package of labor laws initiated in April 2009 by the Histadrut as part of the negotiations for the Labor Party, then under Ehud Barak, to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. One law obligates employers to negotiate with any new union local established in their organizations, and carries a NIS 250,000 fine for violators. Another law prohibits employers from barring workplace access to Histadrut representatives.
In the US, by contrast, weak labor laws and weakened enforcement make it relatively easy for employers to resist unionization. And there’s a whole industry devoted to “persuading” workers to reject unions.
Acting on behalf of the growing segment of the workforce on contract rather than employed directly, the Histadrut led a general strike that produced significant gains for these workers.
Of course not everyone in Israel is pleased with organized labor’s strength. The Israeli business publication Globes reported:
Minister of the Economy Naftali Bennett wanted to send the army into the ports in the event of a strike; now he wants to “exterminate” them, but wraps this in the form of a pun. In the latest post on his Facebook, he wrote, “That’s it. The ants are impossible. I came home and realized that something had to be done. They’re in the kitchen, the living room, the guest room. The whole house is filled with ants. I called in the exterminator.”
In Hebrew, the word for “ants” and “ports” is the same – nemalim. The reference to workers at Israel’s seaports and their unions is unmistakable…
What a card.
Bennett targeted the ports during the election campaign, when he called for a fight against powerful unions. On Sunday, Bennett said that he had drawn up a plan, “Code 1981”, which featured sending the IDF into the ports in the event of a wildcat strike over the government’s plans to build a new private-owned port. The plan’s name was inspired by US President Ronald Reagan, who broke the air traffic controllers strike that year.
Anyway, if you were a Martian trade unionist who had just landed in Israel, you might think labor unions everywhere would be eager to declare solidarity with their Israeli brothers and sisters and to learn what they are doing right.
Halevai. While the US labor movement maintains strong bonds with Israel, many union leaders elsewhere (as we’ve had to report far too often) have turned decidedly hostile.
The JTA reported in April:
Members of U.S. labor unions raised $1.4 million for the Yitzhak Rabin Center in Tel Aviv last year, 45 percent of the center’s total 2012 fundraising. Since 2005, American unions have raised $12 million for the center.
Labor leaders say programs at the center, which celebrates the slain Labor Party prime minister who signed the 1993 Oslo Accords and promotes dialogue among Israel’s cultural groups, meshes with their core values.
Rabin’s “commitment to peace in not just Israel but the world is amazing,” said J. David Cox, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees. “He was criticized for his willingness to make compromises, but life is full of compromises. That’s how you arrive at a solution.”
American unions have supported Jewish statehood since before Israel’s establishment in 1948. At the time, Jews were heavily represented in the American labor movement, and Israel, with its socialist roots and collectivist spirit, was seen as a natural ally.
Today, organized labor, particularly in Europe, has overwhelmingly shifted its sympathies to the Palestinians, routinely voting in favor of boycotting Israeli goods or divesting from Israeli companies. But American union leaders say they remain committed to Israel, supportive of what they see as a perseverant Western country with an ethic of social justice.
“There wasn’t a nation here,” said John Coli, head of Chicago’s Teamsters Local 727, who was in Israel in April as part of a delegation hosted by the Rabin Center. “Now it’s totally different. [Tel Aviv] is a modern city. People have access to health care, to education. That’s what we want to build everywhere.”
The best source for information on the Israeli labor movement and its relations with other trade unions is TULIP. Check it out.