ICL, union negotiations break down

Tel Aviv — An apparent breakthrough in negotiations to end the more than three-month-old strike at Israel Chemicals Ltd.’s (ICL) subsidiaries Dead Sea Works and Dead Sea Bromine Compounds fizzed out after ICL broke off talks with the unions and the Histadrut Labor Federation. Histadrut has said that it will now take the matter back to the Beer Sheba Regional Labor Court for it to decide on the crucial matter of firing workers. The two key issues that remain unresolved are an ICL demand to allow it freedom to move workers from one division to another within a subsidiary or from one subsidiary to another. ICL said in so doing it would maintain the worker’s seniority and rank, and take into account his place of residence. In exchange, ICL agreed to refrain from layoffs for the next three years. There is also a disagreement between the parties over the number of workers who will actually be laid off through voluntary retirement or layoffs. The unions are demanding the right to remove certain names from the list of layoffs. ICL CEO Stefan Borgas told analysts May 13 that the company is in no rush to resolve the strike. “So we are not actually concerned about the length of the strike, because the payback is so significant. We are willing to extend it for a few more months if need be, because the experience we’ve had in other cases, also here in Israel, has been significant and the benefits that we expect to get also are significant.”