Egged Bus (archive)
Egged Bus (archive)Israel news photo: Egged

Many bus commuters throughout Israel will be forced to find other modes of transportation Monday, as the Egged bus cooperative goes on a full-fledged strike.

The strike will last for just one day, but union representatives for drivers hope that will be enough time to prompt management to negotiate on their demands.

The strike was originally scheduled for Sunday, but drivers decided to postpone it by a day so as not to impede the many soldiers who use the buses to get from their homes to their bases after weekend furloughs.

While the large majority of Egged lines will not be running Monday, the company will operate some buses on lines that are considered “security sensitive.” Meanwhile, depots will remain open, and management will operate some buses on busy routes.

As a cooperative, Egged is composed of several independent branches. According to the company, not all drivers will be striking at all branches in northern Israel. However, in the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv areas, as well as in southern Israel, the strike will be almost complete.

Drivers have complained that management has not negotiated with them on a new contract in good faith, and has been intimidating younger drivers not to demand pay increases, threatening that they will be fired before they get tenure. The Histadrut claims management has been unresponsive to what it called pleas to reopen talks.

The Transportation Ministry has yet to make a statement on the prospective strike.

According an Egged spokesperson, the strike “is completely unjustified and ignores the fact that Egged now has competition, and that in order to stay in business we must go through a cost-cutting process that will save the organization NIS 100 million ($27 million) a year.”