Workers at ZIM Integrated Shipping Services stopped all work on Tuesday, stepping up a strike to press for job security guarantees after Germany's Hapag-Lloyd said it would buy the Israeli shipping company for $4.2 billion.
About 800 unionized employees of a total of 1,000 workers at ZIM began the strike on Sunday at its headquarters in Haifa following talk of a planned takeover but there was still some activity at other Israeli seaports.
"Since this morning, we are not allowing any kind of activity," Ziva Lainer Schkolnik, a union leader at ZIM, told Reuters.
"We have stopped some vessels at the ports of Ashdod and Haifa and we will not let the company work on those ships until they talk with us and we are convinced they are considering the employees." She added that already docked ships would not be unloaded.
In a related deal to the proposed takeover, Tel Aviv-based private equity firm FIMI Opportunity Fund will acquire a business with 16 vessels carved out from ZIM that secures direct global maritime connections for Israel. This dedicated Israeli container line will be called "New ZIM".
Lainer Schkolnik said the union was told by management that "New ZIM" would only have 120 employees, meaning nearly 900 workers - many of them with contracts guaranteeing tenure - could be let go.
ZIM declined to comment.
Hapag-Lloyd said in a statement that all of ZIM’s management and staff at its headquarters "will receive job security after closing, which should be negotiated in good faith with the labour representatives".
"Israel will also longer term be a strong location for the combined business of ZIM and Hapag-Lloyd".
A Hapag-Lloyd spokesperson told Reuters that the company was willing to discuss all issues with the labour representatives.
The union also expressed concern about the long-term viability of "New ZIM", citing its relatively smaller size and that 98% of Israeli imports come through seaports in the Mediterranean Sea.
Hapag-Lloyd said there were "lots of good examples in our industry of shipping lines in comparable size, which are pretty successful and profitable".
(Reuters)
