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Issue: October 1989

Although they pay dues to the Histadrut, West Bank and Gazan workers are not entitled to vote in union elections, nor to take part in local workers' councils. They are even denied observer status on plant workers' committees.

A STATUE OF PAST ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER GOLDA MEIER stands in the lobby of the AFL-CIO headquarters building in Washington D.C. In the portfolio of AFL-CIO affiliate pension funds is over $300 million in Israeli bonds. Standing further with its Israeli counterpart, the Histadrut, the AFL-CIO does not recognize most Palestinian unions. In many areas of the United States, the secretary of the local labor council also stands as the secretary of the local Histadrut support committee.

These facts alone would suffice to explain the AFL-CIO's consistent opposition to Palestinian labor or criticism of anything Israeli, although further details of the relationship are abundant. Most recently, for example, top AFL-CIO officials Albert Shanker (American Federation of Teachers), John Joyce (Bricklayers International) and AFL-CIO Chief Economist Rudy Oswald formally raged against the "unfairness" of examining whether Israel violates internationally recognized standards for workers' rights in its treatment of Palestinian workers. That question was recently before U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills, who is charged with determining compliance with the General System of Preferences trade law granting certain duty-free privileges to "developing" countries. Israel is a major beneficiary of the GSP program, exporting over $500 million worth of duty free goods yearly to the U.S. Not surprisingly, Ms. Hills found Israel fully in compliance.

Because Israel for the past twenty-one years has prohibited any form of Palestinian economic or agricultural development in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians living there are almost wholy dependent upon Israeli employment for their livelihood. Much like South African blacks, Palestinians from the Occupied Territories must commute several hours every day to cross into Israel, where many Palestinians were born but where they may neither sleep nor live. Most are service, agricultural and construction workers doing the dirty jobs Israelis will not do. Most have regular jobs and are unionized. Many are subject to the whim of the "slave market" (irregular day labor).

Where Palestinians and Israelis in the same union do comparable work, Palestinians are normally paid one-third the wage of the Israeli counterpart. Marty Rosenbluth discusses an example in the 1987 November/December issue of International Labor Reports:

"Two years ago, workers at the Berman Bakery in Jerusalem walked out in protest over poor pay and conditions. All 35 were from the West Bank and were registered with Israeli government labour exchanges. Some had been at the bakery for several years. Yet they were making one-third of the wages paid to an Israeli for the same job. They complained to the plant's workers' committee but the union did nothing. Haim Maman, spokesperson for the Histadrut, the General Federation of Workers in Israel, told them, 'We have no commitment to West Bank workers.'

Legally, all workers in Israel, regardless of nationality, are covered by the contracts reached between the Histadrut federation and employers. All doing the same job should be paid the same wage. In reality, this rarely happens . . .

. . . All West Bank and Gaza workers who work through government labour exchanges pay a fee to the Histadrut. The government deducts an "organisation tax" of 1% from their wages and gives it to the Histadrut to provide "trade union protection." The Histadrut claims to be unable to give such protection as it lacks access to the necessary records. The result is that collective agreements go unmonitored and employers benefit by paying discriminatory wages.

Although they pay dues to the Histadrut, West Bank and Gazan workers are not entitled to vote in union elections, nor to take part in local workers' councils. They are even denied observer status on plant workers' committees."

Histadrut is much more than a counterpart of the AFL-CIO. It is Israel's second-largest (after the government) employer, owning and operating hundreds of industrial concerns. Koors Industrial Holding Company alone owns some 130 industrial concerns. Many Histadrut-owned companies are armaments manufacturers who, like Koor Indurstries' subsidiaries Soltam and Tadiran routinely sell to all buyers, including South Africa. At least one Koors subsidiary, Iskoor Steel, is jointly owned with South Africa.

Apart from the moral implications of AFL-CIO investments in Histadrut- owned industries, including Koors, the financial condition of these investments leave much to be desired. They just don't make it with Standard and Poor. In fact, a number are close to bankruptcy. Obviously, the AFL-CIO has more than its membership's pensions in mind when making these investments.

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