Negotiations between the Histadrut Labor Federation, the Israel Chemicals Ltd.’s unions and ICL management broke down today. The powerful Histadrut trade federation accused management of backtracking on their commitments and failing to show up at today’s round of scheduled talks. The news of the break down of the talks followed progress in the negotiations in the past few days and predictions that the strike would end within the next few days. The Histadrut accused ICL management of raising new demands including a right to move workers from plant to plant and within subsidiaries themselves and in exchange management agreed not to fire any workers for the next three years.
The workers are demanding the right to replace workers that management wants to lay off with others that are prepared to go on early retirement. The Histadrut said that it would immediately report to the president of the Beer Sheba Regional Labor Court on the latest developments and ask for the Court’s intervention.