Flying in and out of Israel is a lottery. Thirty flights with some 3,000 passengers were affected. One plane sat on the tarmac for two hours waiting for permission to take off, but was ordered back to the gate. Incoming flights were allowed to land, but passengers were directed to their hotels without their luggage. The putative cause of this strike was management s refusal to meet with the union to discuss its demand that management give tenure to some temporary workers.
Times are tough in Israel.
Violence with the Palestinians, one of the fruits of the peace process, has severely curtailed tourism. Until tourism picks up, the airport work force should be reduced, not increased. At least this would be the response in a normal country. To the uninitiated in the ways of Israeli socialism, it would seem strange that workers in the tourism sector would shut down the very means by which tourists come to spend their hard-earned money in Israel, and make their jobs possible. But Israel is not normal.