The head of the striking Histadrut national labor union is set to meet 8:00 p.m. Wednesday evening with Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On in another attempt to close the gap on differences over wage hikes for workers in the public sector.

A meeting between Histadrut chairman Ofir Eini and Eli Cohen, head of wages at the ministry, is scheduled for 5:00 p.m.

The strike, which began Wednesday morning at 6:00 a.m. shut down many services in most government offices, postal and other public services.  Ben Gurion International Airport was exempted from the strike until Thursday, in order to allow the arrival of 600 new immigrants from France Wednesday morning.