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This evening, Histradrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) chairman Ofer Eini attacked statements made earlier today by Minister of Transport Israel Katz about Israel Railways. "Today, the minister of transport took a step that amounts to pure anarchy and irresponsibility of the worst kind towards Israel railways workers and the travelling public, all the while misleading the public and making statements with no basis in fact," Eini said.
"The minister of transport never reached agreement with me. Over the past few weeks, in full cooperation with the Israel Railways workers committee, I conducted intensive negotiations with Israel Railways management and Ministry of Finance representatives. There was substantial progress in the negotiations, but in no way was there an agreement, certainly not with the minister of transport. So all the statements to the effect that I reached an agreement with him and the workers committee torpedoed it are absolute nonsense and are the minister's sole responsibility.
"Israel Katz has decided to engineer a provocation in the middle of ongoing negotiations that are making progress," Eini added. "This is something unprecedented, the like of which I find hard to recall in labor relations in recent years. Katz is apparently not looking for an agreement but war with the workers for the sake of war. He wants to tempt them into a strike in order to make them look bad in the eyes of the public and to score points.
"The Histadrut has no intention of falling into Katz's trap. It will rather behave responsibly for the benefit of rail passengers and workers. I call on the minister to retract his hasty and irresponsible decision and to continue negotiations in order to reach an agreement, so as not to escalate labor relations and cause harm to the citizens of Israel. Should that happen, the responsibility will lie with him alone."
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