Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the plan by Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz to privatize the new port that will be built in either Haifa or Ashdod. Under the plan, an international tender will shortly be published for the operation of the new port by a private company that specializes in the operation of large ports.
The operations tender will join the new port's construction tender, which in the advanced prequalification (PQ) stage. The port operator will have a 30-year franchise.
Netanyahu's decision will face fierce opposition by the workers committees at Ashdod Port Company Ltd. and Haifa Port Company Ltd., and the government is preparing for a prolonged ports strike. At the same time, the government will open a channel for talks with the Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel). Katz and Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini will discuss details of the plan.
Sources inform ''Globes'' that the government will promise Eini that the workers at the future port can unionize and will be protected under a labor contract that will guarantee them rights similar to the rights of employees at Israel's current ports.
Katz and Minister of Finance Yair Lapid will soon decide whether the new port will be built at either Haifa or Ashdod, and the cities are already battling to win it. The government might also decide to build two ports simultaneously at both cities, but it is doubtful if the government can finance both projects at the same time, as they will each cost an estimated NIS 4 billion.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 24, 2013
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