After announcing its intention to raise prices and receiving fire from the large marketing chains, the Histadrut and the public, Diplomat is freezing the move it planned, for now. The company announced that it will not raise the prices of its products until after the holidays. The announcement includes all the products that made headlines in the last two weeks due to the price increase.
Following the negotiations that took place with the marketing chains, Diplomat actually decided to grant special offers on products included under the new price list until after the holidays, so that the price for consumers should remain at its current level.
Mediplomat announced this evening (Mon): “In recent days, Diplomat has offered all its customers in the marketing chains an outline that includes a sequence of promotions so that the consumer can benefit from the previous price, until after the holidays, to customers who do not approve the proposed outline, no goods will be supplied. It is important to note that Diplomat encourages Competition and does everything it can to deal with it professionally and honestly. Diplomat makes many efforts to prevent price increases, but due to inflation and an increase in global inputs, the issue was only partially out of her hands.
“We would like to emphasize that Diplomat is an Israeli company, operating in five countries in the world, and employs about 2,500 people, of which about 750 are in Israel, and it needs to maintain a minimum financial strength, in order to take care of the well-being of its employees and its shareholders, which also include the public.”
The Histadrut, on the other hand, does not intend to stop protesting. The diplomat’s announcement that does not unequivocally announce the freeze on price increases does not signify the end of the struggle for them. “The struggle we embarked on last week is a long journey, this journey will continue and despite the vague message of a diplomat that does not herald anything to the general public, we continue the struggle with all our might,” said the Histadrut.
This evening representatives of the Histadrut, retired members of the Histadrut, social activists and citizens came to protest the cost of living in front of the house of the President of the Federation of Industrialists and Chairman of the Presidency of Employers and Businesses in Israel Dr. Ron Tomer, in the Neve Avivim neighborhood in Tel Aviv. Tomer went down to the protesters, heard their claims and had a long conversation with them.
“This morning we started a field operation that will help consumers to fight against the cost of living and tonight we are demonstrating in front of Ron Tomer’s house, the struggle will continue and increase in the coming days until the companies in the economy realize that the celebration is over and stop harassing consumers,” said Histadrut Chairman Arnon Bar-David. To the government that if there are no active steps and actions on the matter, I will bring in the institutions of the Histadrut in early September with the aim of declaring a labor dispute in the economy.”
Eyal Ravid, CEO of Victory, responded: “As I said in the last few days, this is consumer time. The power to change is in the hands of the consumers and that’s a good thing. This victory is the savings of all of us. There will be no price increases and the goods will continue to stand on the shelves for the consumer to choose.”