arabs in israel

Update on a job to win

Update on Construction Workers

four months have passed since WAC (the Workers Advice Center) opened a campaign to get Arab construction workers back on the job in their profession. The campaign has advanced the organization on three levels: (1) on the level of mobilizing workers; (2) on the legal plane; (3) on the social.

Mobilization of Workers
WAC has established a positive connection with a major construction firm, Solel Boneh, which now employs 150 of its members. They work in thirteen sites throughout the country. They are divided into groups, each containing at least five workers, some as many as thirty. Each group includes a coordinator who mediates between his workers and the company supervisor and reports, as well, to WAC. All the workers receive the same wage ($1300 monthly, gross).

WAC has met with other construction firms as well, but none have committed themselves to employ the workers on a long-term basis and pay them the wage prescribed by law, i.e., by collective agreements for the construction industry.

Among the new members who began to work in June is a group from East Jerusalem. They had come to know WAC through our office there, which helps the jobless to secure benefits.

Petition to the High Court
WAC has taken on the task of legal representation for construction workers in Israel. Our target group consists of the 35,000 Arabs who lost their jobs in the nineties, after Israel began importing foreign labor. Since the last Challenge, the government caved in to the pressure of the contractors, allowing them to import more. On July 7, WAC's attorney, Bassam Karkabi, petitioned the High Court against the government, demanding that the latter stop issuing permits to bring in workers for the building trade. Foreign workers are paid much less than the law prescribes (the collective agreements have not been applied to them). Our central claim is that their import under conditions of indentured servitude has severely injured the local labor force. Unless the government puts a stop to this all too convenient practice, it will not be possible to force the firms to hire local workers and pay them the wage demanded by law.

Organizing the Construction Workers
At its national convention on June 29, WAC decided to form a Council of Social Activities for its members. Its first project will be a day of sport on July 20, in which the various workers' groups will take part.

WAC seeks to raise the workers' class consciousness and promote solidarity among them. WAC views itself as committed to fight racism and create understanding between Jewish and Arab workers.

From Challenge # 74 July-August 2002