Bethel Finance: Katz announces railways restructuring

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Minister of Transport Israel announced measures to restructure Israel Railways today, and he continues to threaten that if the workers continue to strike, he will shut down the railways.

"We will set up three companies that will deal with existing equipment, with cargo, and with business development of the railways," Katz said at a press conference he called this afternoon, commenting on implementation of the agreement signed with Bombardier. "We formulated broad agreements on many things, but in the end the dispute is about who runs the railways. The Israel Railways management runs the railways, and the new rolling stock needs to be maintained in a different way. Today, a significant step has been taken towards restructuring the railways. I expect the workers to play their and not to harm the public."

Katz repeated the threat that he has made in the past two weeks of shutting down the rail system. "If there are strikes, there will be no avoiding a shut down of the railway. I am improving the way the railway operates and preparing it to achieve its goals." Katz implied that the responsibility for the breakdown in negotiations lay with railway workers committee chair Gila Edri. "She isn't interested in the workers' conditions; she wants control."

Katz added that Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) chair Ofer Eini had agreed with him on part of the agreement that had been formulated, but that Edri frustrated it. "Yes, Eini agreed to the wording of the agreement, but we have a situation in which someone assumed veto rights as though the company belongs to her. The company belongs to the public, and we will restore it to the public," Katz said.

Katz declared that Israel Railways management had no intention of privatizing the company. "They sought to bring in a foreign company, a world leader, as a partner. I don't seek to privatize, or to clash with the workers. This model, which the Histadrut chairman agreed to, is not a privatization model. But the workers won't agree. Why? Because this solution is good for Israel Railways but not good for the workers committee, because if the workers are on secondment the committee can't control them. This agreement takes workers out of the committee's control, and there is a control battle going on. I didn't see this at Israel Electric Corporation, at the Airports Authority, at Mekorot, or in other monopolies."