Palestine: Strikers’ Solidarity Bucks Bosses At Every Turn

YERUCHAM, ISRAEL, March 25 — Late last year, workers at the Ackerstein factory — one of Israel’s largest construction material manufacturers — in this southern town decided to stand up and fight their boss’s terror by establishing a democratic and independent union. Their struggle culminated in a strike and occupation of the factory, demanding union recognition and a union contract. Yerucham is located in Israel’s “deep south,” where most residents are low-wage Jewish workers, as well as super-exploited Bedouins. Their multi-racial unity carried the day.

The spark igniting this conflict was management’s firing of some of the most veteran skilled workers, to increase profits. Their fellow workers felt this was totally unjust, especially since this group of workers was highly committed to the job and to their friends in the factory. This occurred amid the impoverishment and unemployment prevailing here, especially among veteran workers.

Fifteen years ago, Ackerstein workers tried to unionize as part of the state-run, phony pro-employers Histadrut union federation. But local Histadrut officials gave the organizers’ names to the bosses who then threatened to fire them if they continued to build the union. Even though Histadrut didn’t unionize the workers, they charged them membership dues.

The management forced the workers to sign an illegal contract, pledging them to avoid future unionizing attempts. The bosses blacklisted workers who led the unionizing.

The threats and terror didn’t change the ugly horrors inside the factory. The management even attempted to create a fake mask of Wallmart-style patronizing “family harmonious relations of production” between the bosses and the workers.

Beside the low wages, workplace insecurity, lack of collective bargaining and pensions, there is a critical problem of unhealthy exposure to dust and toxic chemicals which can cause cancer and respiratory diseases. The bosses refuse to recognize the dangerous health risks, denying appropriate protection for the workers.

Then the bosses forced the workers to sign another draconian and illegal contract, stating that if they became ill because of the factory’s health risks, they would not file claims against the company because they “were aware of the job’s risks.”

Due to the management threats and terror, workers began unionizing secretly.  Now, almost all the workers joined. The workers also decided democratically to affiliate their union to the new, more democratic “Workers’ Power” federation.

Ackerstein refused to recognize the union. Initially, they tried to fire the union’s leading members. This failed because of the workers’ solidarity. They then went on a short strike. Soon afterwards, management tried another divide-and-conquer tactic, but workers’ unity defeated that.

Throughout this period, the local union and the Workers’ Power federation offered to start negotiating a contract, but the boss refused to bargain.

The bosses then brought in scabs. They also began removing the machines, threatening to move the assembly lines to Eastern Europe, or even to close the entire factory.

Those threats failed to break the workers’ spirit. It only increased their motivation and militancy in defense of their union. They answered the bosses’ brutality by occupying the factory. Soon the boss changed his attitude and seemed more willing to negotiate. The solidarity from unions in neighboring factories in the industrial zone and from the working-class community of Yerucham also helped the workers to stand together in their struggle.

The successful strike forced the local court of labor affairs to recognize the union’s legitimacy and demanded management start negotiating. But management is now collaborating with Histadrut to unionize the company’s other facilities into its fake sellout unions. They intend to isolate the southern factory’s workers from the rest of the company’s work-force and install the pro-state, pro-boss Histadrut as the “official” union.

This struggle has shown how powerful the workers can be when they refuse to back down when faced with the capitalist’s attempts at coercion. But even though this was a local victory for the workers, in the long run even a strong union can’t change the ugly face of capitalism, a system based on the exploitation of workers by the ruling class. In order to guarantee the working class a decent life, occupying a factory and scaring the boss for a few hours unfortunately is not enough. We need to smash the bosses and their system once and for all, and win state power under the banner of revolutionary communism!