Airport Strike In Israel Ends, But Damage Is Done
Come Yom Kippur, employees at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport might have to atone for scrambling thousands of passengers’ travel plans. On Monday, during one of Israel’s busiest travel periods of the year, the Israel Airports Authority employees union declared a strike; by late yesterday, the strike had been settled, Haaretz reported.
But the damage had been done. The eight-hour strike was enough to delay the unloading of baggage from incoming flights, which “interfered with the plans of thousands of passengers who were set to depart or arrive at the airport,” Haaretz said.
A group of Orthodox Jews did their best to save stranded travelers from boredom, however. “Some of the hundreds of Breslav Hasidim returning from pilgrimage to Ukraine on Monday caused a disturbance in the baggage claims area, banging on small drums, after learning they would not be able to receive their luggage due to the strike,” the article said. Police increased their presence at the airport to avoid further disturbances.
What prompted the strike? According to BusinessWeek, “workers feared the government would raid their pension fund to cover other debts, including hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation owed to people living near the airport over noise complaints.” Workers prevailed on their main demand, the transfer of pension funds to a trust. “I am glad we were able to reduce the harm and suffering to the citizens of Israel,” Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said, via Haaretz.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
