Employees of the Dead Sea Works, producing potash exported worldwide, are threatening to expand their ongoing partial work sanctions into a full-blown strike beginning Tuesday.
For the past two weeks, 1,500 employees of the state-run company have been protesting what they call "one-sided management decisions". According to Armond Lankri, chairman of the Dead Sea Works labor union, the company's management has been retiring dozens of employees without replacing them, leaving necessary positions unfilled.
Lankri is expected to announce the start of increasing sanctions leading up to and including a full strike, which would shut down the Dead Sea's major industry. On Sunday, the national labor union, the Histadrut, approved Lankri's request to officially declare a labor dispute, which has its own set of regulations regarding the behavior of each side to the dispute.
The Dead Sea Works labor leader added that the company has just installed a new gas system that will save it between 40 to 60 million US dollars annually. According to Lankri, the management has already agreed that employees should also be allowed to benefit from those savings.