The public busses strike was postponed to enable more negotiations with the unions

During a hearing in the National Labor Court on Tuesday evening on the issuance of restraining orders against the strike planned for public transportation tomorrow, it was agreed between the line operators and the workers' power organization that the strike will be postponed to March 9 - after the meeting with Transport Minister Merav Michaeli.
Power for Workers sought to shut down employees of Superbus, Electra Afikim and Dan in the south, which operate service lines in Jerusalem, Haifa and the periphery. The strike was planned in protest of the delay in negotiations between the Ministry of Transportation and the operators of the lines on raising drivers' wages.
A representative of the Ministry of Transportation emphasized at the hearing that although there is no employee-employer relationship between the state and the drivers employed by the line operators. However, he said, "there is no dispute regarding a dialogue with the Minister of Transportation and the Ministry of Transportation. Drivers 'wages are at the heart of the discussion. The Minister has an interest in raising drivers' wages."
Representatives of the line operations argued in court that in negotiations between them and the Ministry of Transportation, the ministry demands that they improve the service, provided that the ministry allocates funds to raise drivers' wages.
Superbus chairman Eli Bellilius said during the hearing that if there was no breakthrough in negotiations between the line operators and the Ministry of Transport, he would ask to join the strike himself. "The main problem in the industry is a huge shortage of drivers - both because of the expansion of service lines and because drivers are leaving the difficult and unrewarding industry," Bellilius said.
He said, "I go hand in hand with all the workers 'organizations and agree that wages should be raised. There are 20,000 drivers in Israel. To this day, the minister has not sat with us, even though she has already sat with the drivers and workers' unions. The workers, "he promised.
Electra Afikim CEO Oded Cohen explained: "We are negotiating with the state regarding the drivers' wages and the company's survival condition. 50% of the passengers no longer exist in public transport because of the corona. We do not know what will happen in two months and if in terms of flow we can meet "In 2020, we lost 20% of the passengers. This is a total loss for the company."
Superbus CEO Tzachi Naveh complained about the loss of revenue due to passengers not attacking their multi-line ticket in the face of Corona restrictions: "Also in January, passenger numbers dropped significantly because of the Corona," he said. , Isolated the driver in the partition and gave an instruction that he would stop charging money, so many passengers do not attack and we lost money. Nobody compensates us for that. "
Representatives of the operating companies promised to update the workers' power on an ongoing basis on the negotiations between them and the Ministry of Transport, and expressed hope that the negotiations would move forward - so that there would be no need for a planned strike on March 9.