Cellcom’s workers’ council threatens to shut down the company due to the intention to sell the company without coordination with them. Today, Cellcom reported that there are several proposals for the purchase of the company, which caused Mia Yaniv, the chairman of the committee, to issue a statement that the company will not be sold in the dark and without the employees being partners in the process.
Cellcom employees have already made it clear in recent months that they do not intend to allow moves that could harm the company or its employees, such as the option that came up a few months ago to sell the company’s cellular sites and re-lease them as part of a financing deal. Following the opposition of the Cellcom committee, the move was dropped from the agenda.
But now, following the announcement, the Cellcom board decided not to sit on the sidelines and wait for the deal to be closed, but to warn them that the sale of the company requires clarification with them. In response, Yaniv sent a letter to the company’s employees in which she writes that “this is such a critical message that concerns the sale of the company, our house, our source of income to an unknown and unknown entity.”
In her letter, she addresses the CEO of Cellcom, Daniel Sapir, and announces that there is now an open labor dispute between the employees and the company’s management. According to her, “the days of certification have passed and we can initiate an immediate shutdown of the companies Cellcom, Golan Telecom and Dynamics Cellular.”
She further added that “this conduct that happens in the dark with the main source of livelihood for thousands of families in Israel is not acceptable and will not pass in silence. No sale will take place and no sale will take place unless they reach clear and precise understandings with the company’s employee representatives.
“The company needs stable owners who want to promote it, that’s what we hoped for with the last purchase and we will fight to the last drop of blood not to turn Cellcom into a penny that passes from hand to hand for the needs of profit for the owners without understanding the damage it causes to the company and the employees.”
In conclusion, Yaniv writes that “we need strong owners who will invest in the company and together with us turn it into the most significant communications company in Israel. I suggest the CEO of the company not to be silent, to contact us immediately in order to give us accurate updates on what exactly is happening.”