workers' struggles

Musicians Support Brik Workers

Impressions from WAC's fundraising concert

"There are people who sit and worry about what's going on, and there are others who stand up and do something to solve the situation - these are the people I see here."

_{Kobi Oz, speaking before his performance at a benefit concert for the Brik manpower workers, Lavontin Street 7, Tel Aviv, April 24, 2009.}

Well-known Israeli rock and jazz musicians played in a benefit concert on April 24 in support of workers fired by the manpower company, Brik. Among the performers were Hemi Rudner, Kobi Oz, Boaz Bannai, Shira Carmel, Yehu Yaron, Shira Arad and Talia Eliav.

This was the culmination of WAC's solidarity campaign with 21 workers, residents of East Jerusalem. They were dismissed by Brik in order to circumvent the law, which provides that after nine months they must be employed directly by their workplace, in this case the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

After they had united in WAC and filed a suit against Brik and the IAA, an intermediary settlement was reached in court, providing that the workers be reinstated pending a final verdict.

The settlement was not fully implemented by Brik, and many of the workers found themselves in financial difficulty. Consequently, we came up with the idea of raising funds from the public. WAC activists in the villages of the Triangle and Galilee turned to WAC members and their families, asking for donations, while WAC's Tel Aviv branch organized the benefit concert.

At first we assumed that these East Jerusalem workers would merely send representatives. As it turned out, all arrived.

We were delighted to see well-known musicians on stage, whose voluntary performances boosted the workers' struggle against abusive employment. Hemi Rodner, a celebrity in the Israeli music scene, translated and performed a Yiddish song by a socialist poet for the occasion. Guy Elhanan wrote the lyrics and Shira Carmel the music for a song about the struggle with the IAA.

_{Hemi Rodner}

We were also glad to see many youngsters at the event, along with a team of the Tel Aviv University's campus radio, who recorded the concert for future airing.

Munir Rishak, one of the 21 claimants, addressed the crowd on behalf of his friends. He described the transformation he had gone through from an employed IAA worker into a Brik employee. "From a dignified worker entitled to full social benefits, I became a humiliated manpower hireling, while my salary and fringe benefits were cut." Munir thanked WAC for opening a new horizon to the workers in the form of the struggle for organized labor.

_{Munir Rishak at the fundraising concert}

Not less important were the food staples collected and purchased a few weeks later, thanks to the donations. This only proves that forming a Jewish-Arab labor union is not only a matter of the future, but also a necessity of the present.

We had planned on transporting the food by car to Jerusalem. Because of the large amounts donated, we had to exchange it for a van. The supply was more than enough for the 21 workers and their families, enabling others laid off by Brik to share the food as well.

_{Hadas Lahav of Sindyanna of Galilee with staples dontaed to the workers}