Ofer Eini's bind

In a last-minute effort on Sunday, Manufacturers Association of Israel President Shraga Brosh pled with Histadrut labor federation head Ofer Eini not to launch a general strike. It's price, he argued, would be NIS 330 million ($90 million) per day. A quick calculation shows that seven days of such a strike would cost the national economy the equivalent of the entire sum saved by cutting the defense budget. That is disturbing, even infuriating.

Eini did not show up in Judge Nili Arad's courtroom on Sunday seeking to compromise in a process of mediation, and thereby reaching an agreement that would negate the need for a strike. While it might not have been his intention, he preferred that a judge prevent him from striking rather than having the two sides reach an agreement.

He has an interest in a strike. This is his flagship project, to return the mantle of leadership of the disadvantaged from social justice protest leader Daphni Leef to the Histradrut's headquarters on Arlozorov Street in Tel Aviv; to frustrate the move by his adversary Amir Peretz, who seeks to present his colleague Eitan Cabel as the Labor party's candidate for chairman of the Histadrut. A fight between Diadochi, at the expense of the Israeli economy.

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The Histadrut is not responsible for the growth of the "slave market" of contract workers, who are paid starvation wages and live in fear of being fired due to any caprice on the part of their employers. But the Histadrut was a passive partner to the phenomenon, and thus cannot wash its hands clean in a single stroke. The solution is not simple – it is complex and tangled, and it requires time.

At its foundation, the Histadrut's cause, while it ignores its own actions, is essentially just. A state with any respect for itself and its citizens would not allow some of them to work in such substandard and inferior conditions. However, rectifying this situation does not require a general strike.

Ofer Eini has a few things to learn from his colleagues in the social protest movement, who have inherited his place as representatives of the disadvantaged. They did not call for a general strike to implement the achievements in the Trajtenberg Committee's report, nor did they boycott all of the white cheeses in order to lower their prices. They focused on cottage cheese, and achieved much more.

Eini should follow their lead. Focus the strike on several prominent government ministries, and the rest will take care of itself.

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