A last-minute intervention by the Labor Court has temporarily stopped a general strike by Rehovot municipality workers that was due to begin Tuesday at 6:00 a.m. and shut down city services indefinitely. The ruling came after an urgent petition filed by the city, following a heated hearing held hours after workers escalated the dispute by blocking Mayor Matan Dil’s parking space with tires.
At the hearing, the workers’ committee presented a softer proposal for a 48-hour strike with a exemptions panel, but the court instead ordered that the planned strike be postponed until Wednesday. The judges said that if the municipality transfers the disputed workers’ welfare and committee budget by 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, the strike will be canceled entirely. The amount at issue is about 3.9 million shekels, after deduction of funds already distributed at Passover.
The court also ordered the committee to avoid further labor actions on other disputed issues, including the legality of the so-called assigned cars measure for managers, until the main hearing set for August. The immediate result is that Defense Minister Israel Katz’s official visit to Rehovot, including a city tour and a work meeting at city hall, will go ahead as planned without disruption.
The municipality welcomed the decision and called it a principled victory over the committee’s conduct. City hall said, “We are glad the court accepted the municipality’s request and canceled the strike,” adding that it will continue working to rehabilitate the municipality and improve services, and that “the real victory is that the residents are not harmed.” Meanwhile, Rehovot remains tense amid an ongoing dispute over Sabbath commerce on Herzl Street and a reported internal Likud poll placing Mayor Dil last among the tested local authority heads.
