|
|
|
WAC's E-Report No. 8
May - 2006 WAC's May E- Report includes items on: 1. WAC's May Day event in Tel Aviv draws wide range support and media coverage. 2. WAC leaders present crisis of unemployment among Arab workers at high level meetings. 3. March 8th – International Women Day – WAC organizes demo of Arab women demanding jobs in Agriculture. 4. WAC and Hotline for Migrant workers in joint Communique: Stop importation of slave labor from abroad. 5. Asma Aghbarieh the head of DAAM (ODA) Party in the recent Israeli Elections puts workers' issues on the top of the political agenda. She calls for building a new Workers' Party that aims to unite Arab and Jewish workers. 1. WAC's May Day event: Workers Hold Their Heads High On the eve of May Day (Sunday April 30th), hundreds of Arab construction workers, farm workers (mainly women), Israeli social activists and artists assembled in Tel Aviv to celebrate May Day. The event was organized by WAC-MAAN (Workers Advice Center) and the political party ODA (Organization for Democratic Action). On regular days, Arab workers from the Galilee, the Triangle and East Jerusalem do not feel at home in Tel Aviv. For two hours, however, they liberated the square of the Cinematheque in the heart of the city. One could see this on their faces: they felt confident and happy to be there. Five leading singers, Israeli and Arab, contributed to the upbeat mood. Amir Lev, Dan Toren, Nati Ornan, Jalal Ayub and the Arab-Jewish "Lenses" sang workers' songs in Arabic, Hebrew and English to emphasize the day's internationalist spirit. After an opening speech by moderator Ishai Golan, Asma Aghbarieh took the podium. Aghbarieh was ODA's first candidate in the recent Knesset elections. She tempered the cheer somewhat by drawing a comparison with last year's May Day celebration in the same place. "What has changed?" she asked. "Poverty has deepened. We have a predatory government serving the interests of the rich. These people sail around in their yachts, and in order to pay for the yacht's gasoline they fire their workers." As for Amir Peretz, the Labor Party head who is slated to be Defense Minister in the new government, Aghbarieh had this to say: "Here's a man who many thought was an authentic workers' leader. But his 'social revolution' has ended with tanks. Amir, is it with tanks and artillery that you're going to stop poverty, or are you going to use them to fight in Gaza and the West Bank?" Jose Escovar, aged 15, spoke in the name of the Hotline for Migrant Workers. He talked of his mother – a migrant worker from Equador – who works 15 hours a day. Escovar called on workers to fight the slave conditions of migrants and to stop their brutal harassment and deportation by the police. Assaf Adiv, WAC's National Coordinator presented a bleak picture of the labor market in Israel today: "While the stock exchange rises and billionaires make fortunes, more and more workers in Israel are subjected to subcontractors and personnel companies, where they have no social benefits. More than 25% of the workers in Israel earn less than the minimum wage." Adiv specified WAC's gains in the last year, including opening employment in agriculture and construction according to the terms of the collective agreements with WAC. Malek Murad, WAC organizer said: "We are not going to shut up just because they want us to. We will fight for our right to a decent job. Do not give us charity. We want jobs, real jobs, and together with WAC we will get them." Wafah Tayara, a female Arab farm worker who leads WAC's efforts among women, ended the event with a speech full of energy and spirit. Tayara told the workers to see WAC as their address and to join its ranks, because it provides protection and support. "But not only that," she said. "We workers, especially Arabs, are in need of a political voice. Just as the employers who exploit us are supported by the government, we need our own party. ODA was the only party that talked to me not as somebody's wife or daughter. It offered me to be a candidate and a leader in the elections." At the climax of the event, twenty workers, including six women, employed in agriculture, were given certificates of appreciation by WAC representatives. These men and women were chosen by their work teams as the workers who proved to be most dedicated to their group's needs. Other speakers at the event were, Haitham Zahalka, leader of the Working Youth, and Shula Keshet from "Ahoti" ("My sister"), an association supporting women below the poverty line. The theme of the event can be summarized in Asma Aghbarieh's words: "We are going to fight and take what belongs to us workers. Let no one delude himself that we will give up."
Photographic Exhibit
Pictures of the event
2. WAC leaders present crisis of unemployment among Arab workers in high level meetings
Recently, WAC leaders presented the situation of unemployment among Arab workers in a number of high level meetings. The meetings were held with Mr. Udi Shental, Deputy General Director of the Ministry of Trade Commerce and Labor, A meeting with Mr. Ya'acov Zigdon – Deputy General Manager of the Employment Authority, two presentations in front of Knessent Special Committee on Mehalev – Workfare program (Known also as the Wisconsin Program), two meetings with the Associations of Industrialists and Contractors.
These meetings have also signified WAC's central role in fighting unemployment. In the meeting with the Deputy General Director of the Employment Ministry (April 11th) WAC's National Coordinator Assaf Adiv was asked to present the view of WAC regarding placement of Arab workers and there was a consensus in the room that WAC is doing a lot more than the Employment Authority regarding Arab workers. In a position paper dated January 2006, written for a meeting with the deputy director-general of the Employment Ministry, Yaakov Zigdon, WAC proposed the following steps: a. To subsidize every farmer who employs Israeli workers. 3. A gradual decrease in quotas for the import of migrant workers, An article by WAC's Coordinator Dani Ben Simhoun was also published lately in Ha'aretz (May 8th). Ben Simhoun exposed the lie of the employers that "there are no workers in Israel who want to work in Agriculture and therefore it is necessary to import migrant workers". WAC conducts jobs placements under the condition that the employer signs an agreement with WAC in accordance with the collective agreement. WAC does not charge the employers for the service of locating the workers and is doing this work in the framework of its concerted effort to overcome a special situation of segregation and neglect that Arab workers face in the Israeli labor market. 4. 8th of March – International Womens' Day - Demonstrating for Jobs for Arab Women On International Women's Day, March 8, 2006, people passing the government offices at a Tel Aviv intersection paused for a strange sight. A hundred women, Arab workers and Jewish activists, stood on the sidewalk with signs proclaiming: "Women want to leave the circle of poverty!" and "Who said Israeli women don't want to work in agriculture?" From the megaphone came phrases in Arabic. Female farm workers and jobless women had arrived from Galilee to protest against a government policy that leaves them in poverty. Orit Soudry, who organized the demonstration for the Workers Advice Center (WAC-MAAN), announced that WAC was using this day to urge the opening of jobs for Arab women in Israel. "Today," said Soudry, "we offer the Ministry of Commerce and Industry a genuine opportunity to solve our unemployment problem. We say, 'The key is in your hands. Open the door to employment.'" For the past year WAC has worked hard to bring Israel's jobless Arab women back into agriculture. Although successful to a point, WAC keeps colliding with an obstacle that can only be removed by government action. The farm bosses claim that employing local workers at the legal minimum wage, including social benefits, is too expensive. They prefer either migrant workers from abroad (who arrive helpless and exploitable, having gone into debt to come here) or locals supplied by a contractor. In both these cases, they needn't pay social benefits. Sigal Rosen, director of Moked – The Hotline for Migrant Workers, spoke to the demonstrators on March 8, addressing the problems of employing migrants and Israeli citizens she said: "All workers suffer from this, whether they're migrants or Israelis, and the only ones who benefit are the employers. Only solidarity among workers, and only a common struggle for jobs under fair conditions for all, can ensure a dignified existence for you and the migrant workers both." The women who demonstrated on March 8 are the tip of an iceberg. WAC believes there are thousands like them in the Arab sector who want agricultural jobs. The absence of a government policy to encourage them is partly responsible for the large unemployment in the Arab sector. Agriculture is a potentially excellent source of jobs for Arab women, only 17% of whom presently work outside the home (compared with 50% of Jewish women). One of the speakers at the demonstration was Siham Alawi, a farm worker from Kufr Qara. Alawi is a WAC member, and a mother of 4. She stressed the importance of women's going out to work: "Today's women refuse to accept the attempt to shut them in the house and keep them from developing. Many have broken the chains of tradition and the patriarchal regime. They've gone out to work, and they've proved their capabilities on all levels." From the words of Hanna Rashed of Nazareth one can see the change that has taken place: "I'm a mother of three. Till five months ago I was a housewife, but then I began to work for Sindyanna of Galilee (a fair-trade organization marketing olive products). I work eight hours a day and get a salary including an official pay slip with all the social benefits. Going out to work has given me self-confidence and helped me develop. It's also been a positive influence on the children, who see me helping to support the family." 5. A joint Communique of WAC - Maan and Hotline for Migrant Workers call upon the Minister of Agriculture: "Do not increase the quota of foreign workers in agriculture" The incoming Minister of Agriculture, Shalom Simchon, announced his intention to increase the quota of foreign agricultural workers by 4,000 additional permits. This step will deepen unemployment, will perpetuate poverty, and is a blow to the basic human rights of economic immigrants. It has recently been reported that the incoming Minister of Agriculture, Shalom Simchon, is intending to increase the quota of economic immigrants who work in agriculture by 4,000 people, added to the existing 26,000 permits. The rationale given for this step: “A shortage of working hands”. No sooner have the government’s basic principles been set out, calling for the reduction of the unemployment rate to 6%, and for the minimisation of employment of foreign workers, and already we are faced with an intention to increase the quotas for import of economic immigrants. The rationale given for this move by Minister Simchon is unfounded. There are many unemployed people in Israel who are willing to work in agriculture. In the past year over a thousand workers have approached WAC, wishing to work in agriculture, most of them having already gained experience in the field. WAC in turn applied to hundreds of farmers in Central Israel and in the north, to employ these workers, but all applications were met with one answer: ‘I have enough Thai workers, I don’t need any more.’ Much has already been said about the hardship caused by unemployment and poverty in Israel as a whole, and, in particular, within the Arab sector, more than half of which has been hit by poverty. Tens of thousands of Arab Israeli citizens have lost their places of work in construction and agriculture because of the impossible competition presented by cheaper workers. It is perfectly clear to all that the shortage is not in working hands, but in workers who are willing to work as slaves, under conditions tolerated by foreign economic immigrants. If farmers were willing to promise a fair wage and social security to their workers, they would find no shortage of working hands within the Israeli population. The import of foreign workers harms the rights of Israeli citizens to earn a decent living. At the same time, it is an exploitation industry with a turnover of millions, which deeply abuses the basic human rights of economic immigrants. There are tens of thousands of illegal immigrants in Israel, who are arrested and deported by the authorities. The vast majority of these came into Israel legally, but lost their legal status because of the Binding Agreement. It is scandalous to bring in new workers from abroad while simultaneously deporting illegal workers, instead of reclassifying and legalising workers who have lost their legal right to remain. This is another tier in the ‘turning doors’ policy of Israel, behind which are several interests, such as employment agencies and employers. These profit from every immigrant entering Israel, since each worker pays them a vast sum in order to be allowed to come here. The Minister of Agriculture’s decision to increase the foreign workers quota is a capitulation to the pressures applied by these powers. The Hotline for Migrant Workers and WAC - Maan warn that letting additional foreign workers into the country will prevent the integration Israeli workers and foreign workers who are already in the country. We, therefore, demand that the decision is halted. The “turning doors” policy – bringing in new foreign workers while at the same time continuing with a practice of deportation – creates conditions of slavery among legal foreign workers, and annuls any possibility of regularising the work market. Under these conditions, there is no chance of work places being opened to Israelis, and unemployment is bound to deepen even further.
For more details please contact:
WAC : www.workersadvicecenter.org
WAC - Maan acts for the integration of Israeli workers in agriculture, and focuses especially on the return to work of Arab workers, who suffer high unemployment. Hotline for Migrant Workers is a human rights organization which acts to rout out slavery and human trade in Israel, and assists economic immigrants, especially those who are under arrest pending deportation, to realize their rights as workers and as human beings. 6. Asma Aghbarieh's election Diary: The Workers Who Built the Campaign The unique election campaign of the ODA put the question of a party for workers in the center stage of Israeli politics. Asma Aghbarieh, the candidate of the ODA was the only woman who headed a list for the Knessent. She presented a forceful advocacy in the name of the workers she represented. Following is part of her "Election Diary" as was published in Challange Magazine (May -June 2006). For the full article and other information of ODA's campaign see its site: www.odaction.org "Early February. Kufr Qara. Two months until elections. It is a meeting between members of ODA-DAAM, the Organization for Democratic Action, and a group of workers women and men. Today the workers will make a decision as to whether they want to be on the list of ODA candidates for the Knesset. The topic is at the end of the agenda. I'm on pins and needles. Unlike me, the workers sit relaxed in their seats. The youngest is 27, the oldest, Munir Ka'war (Abu Wisam) is 66. His opinion counts the most for me. And for a reason. Three years ago, when ODA last ran, Abu Wisam claimed that the society wasn't ready for the notion that manual workers could represent themselves: "People will say, 'What do they know about politics?'" When the time arrived to discuss ODA, I asked, "What do you think today, Abu Wisam?" Instead of answering directly, he told the group a story: "Thirty years ago I worked at a building site in Tel Aviv with a young construction engineer from Russia. He used to invite me during the break for a cup of coffee nearby. One day that I'll never forget, one of our fellow workers asked us to take him along so he could go to the bank. After he'd done what he needed, he returned to the car to wait for us while we had our usual coffee. We yelled to him that he should come join us. He excused himself, because he was embarrassed about his dirty work clothes. To my astonishment, the engineer got up, took a stand in the middle of this Tel Aviv street, and delivered a speech in praise of the workers, telling my friend, 'You are the foundation of the whole society!' In Russia they knew how to value the worker." This story was the dramatic introduction to Abu Wisam's announcement that he would join the ODA list. He was joined by laborers from Kufr Qara, Nazareth, Um al-Fahm, Kfar Manda, Shaab and other places – for a total of 29 men and women. |
|