On Thursday (20.1.22), the Port of Ashdod sent an urgent appeal to the Labor Court requesting that the Histadrut not take the organizational measures it has been taking for the past four months.
The Ashdod Port Company stated that “the company did its best to avoid applying to the court for legal relief, both through holding talks, meetings and negotiations in the hope of reaching a new collective agreement that the company can abide by without compromising the port’s strength in the age of competition. The application to convene a production council. “Unfortunately, the workers’ representation is acting irresponsibly and has chosen to allow workers to disrupt work precisely during emergencies when we are in the hope that the company will not be able to prove any disruptions in legal proceedings and it will have to succumb to the illegal economic pressure.”
The Ashdod Port Authority’s request is submitted in light of the slowdown disruptions taken at the port by workers in the workshops sector – a specialized equipment industry – starting in October 2021. According to the Ashdod Port Company, the workers have slowed down and repaired fewer shifts. The damage to the slowdown strike has accumulated to the point that a significant part of the port’s activity is not taking place. These disruptions are taken even before the labor dispute is declared on January 11, 2022.
The port management claims before the court that the workers’ representatives chose, not for the first time, to take painful but “invisible” steps in order to enjoy a “luxury strike,” that is, disruptions that none of the workers and their representatives would have to bear.
According to the Port of Ashdod as a result of the disruptions taken, there is a slowdown in the rate of handling faults in the bridge cranes at the container terminals as well as in the cranes located at the logistical rear of those docks. The lengthening of the time when the cranes are malfunctioning has a direct impact on the pace of service to the company’s customers in unloading and loading ships at the waterline, and disrupting the time windows allocated for unloading or loading the ships calling at the port.
In an appeal to the Labor Court, the Ashdod Port Company writes that: “As a result of the disruptions taken, starting in October 2021, there is a slowdown in the handling of malfunctions in the bridge cranes at the container terminals at platforms 7, 9 (Ashdod terminal) and 22 , RMG gate levers.
As of December 2021, the damage to the decommissioning strike forced the company to divert manpower from platform 23 (where no deceleration disruptions were taken) to platforms 7, 9 and 22 for the purpose of handling faults in the cranes, which eventually slowed down the rate of handling the bridge cranes on the container platform. 23 (Jubilee Terminal), as well as the gate cranes located at the logistical rear of this RTG platform. It’s the result. ‘
The Ashdod Port Company stated that “the financial and image damage caused to the company, which is in a very sensitive period in the face of the opening of private ports and the increase in competition, are accumulating, all without any material justification and without legal cause.”
Ashdod Port is represented by Adv. Chaya Armen and Adv. Michal Haberfeld of Herzog Fox Ne’eman.