P&W blade plant in Nahariya closes after years of labor fight

Pratt & Whitney’s blade-manufacturing plant in Nahariya, formerly known as Iscar Blades, has shut down for good after years of campaigning to keep it open. About 600 workers are affected. Roughly 300 will be transferred to a similar plant in Tefen, also in northern Israel, while the rest will leave under improved severance terms, early retirement or retirement arrangements.

The factory was founded by Stef Wertheimer 50 years ago, after then-French president Charles de Gaulle imposed an arms embargo on Israel following the Six-Day War. The struggle over its future was led by the Histadrut for more than four years, and there had been a one-year extension agreed at the start of last year, which in practice became about 18 months. The closure follows a decision by the US company, one of the world’s biggest makers of jet engines, after it bought the plant from the Wertheimer family in 2014 for an undisclosed sum.

A source familiar with the dispute said there were strikes, committee hearings in the Knesset and protests at the factory gate, but ultimately, “you cannot force a giant like Pratt & Whitney to operate the plant in Nahariya against its will.” He said the company chose to reduce production in Israel and close the Nahariya site, while the workers who remain will move to a Tefen plant that makes jet-engine blades and “produces almost the same thing.”

The same source said the main pain is the loss of an important industrial site in Israel, warning that what is made locally today may not be made tomorrow. He added that Israeli ministers of economy and defense failed to persuade the Americans to keep the plant. The Manufacturers Association of Israel called the closure deeply regrettable, blaming a weaker dollar and higher input costs, and warned it was a “clear warning sign” that local industry must be treated as a strategic and security asset. Its president, Avraham Novogratzki, urged the government to cut industrial costs, including burdensome regulation, municipal taxes and land prices, to prevent more closures.