2024-07-22 14:13:22
The CEO of the Port of Eilat, Gideon Golber, announced that “work at the port has come to a complete halt due to the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea, and a large number of port workers will be laid off.”
“The port of Eilat is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the activities carried out by the Houthis at sea since last November,” Golber said in an interview with the Hebrew newspaper Maariv, noting that “all activities have stopped due to the inability of ships to reach the port, or to pass to Europe through the Suez Canal, so the port has stopped its activity and with it the income.”
“With the port reducing its operations, it is facing huge expenses without revenue for 8 months,” Golber explained, stressing that “this port depends on manpower, as it employs 110 direct employees, and there are 40 to 100 other security employees depending on the activity they perform, in addition to 250 to 300 employees in and around the port, who work indirectly.”
“The state is not helping,” Golber stressed, adding: “We are not asking for money, we are asking to allow the port to operate. We would have preferred that the port workers leave for a collective bargaining agreement. The State of Israel will pay 70 percent of the salary in the collective bargaining agreement, and this is how we keep the workers. Unfortunately, we do not have such an agreement.”
He added: “We do not get answers from the Ministry of Finance, although the Ministry of Transport is trying to help and support, but in the end the money is in the treasury, we are forced to adjust the income level to the expenditure level.”
“The port of Eilat is considered an important economic gateway for Israel. The bombing of ships passing through the Red Sea and heading to the port of Eilat or the Suez Canal by the Ansar Allah group in response to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has reduced shipping traffic by 85% in the port, which is on the verge of bankruptcy.”
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2024-07-22 14:13:22