Under the slogan "Our Right To Get A Job Comes First !" WAC, the Independent Trade Union Association, will hold its second conference on May Day 1999. This year’s conference will take place in Nazareth, the largest Arab city inside Israel. Its focus is the fight against unemployment, marginalization and discriminatory practices toward Arab workers in the globalized Israeli economy. These issues will be discussed with the aim of organizing Arab workers and unemployed toward fighting back. Accordingly, our deliberations will not only have a theoretical side, but we shall also formulate a strategy for members and supporters of WAC, who are largely from the Arab working class.

High Arab Unemployment Rates - A Result of Structural Discrimination

For the past year WAC activists in Nazareth and other Arab areas have worked intensively on the grave situation facing unemployed Arab workers. According to the official Israeli Employment Authority (EA), the country's unemployment rate in 1998 was 8.6%. However, we estimate that the level in Arab localities is at least twice this official figure. In the Arab towns and villages in and around Nazareth, the unemployment rate is over 20%. In a recent interview, the manager of the National Insurance Branch in Nazareth indicated to WAC that his office treats 35-40,000 requests for Subsistence Allowances a month. (This is out of a total population of 150-180,000.) 

Arab workers as well as Arab unemployed are suffering from systematic racist employment policies in the Jewish-oriented economy of Israel. This is clear from the following data (Statistical Abstract of Israel 1997 , pp.316-17):

Employed persons and employees, by occupation
Academic Associate Managers Clerical Sales & Skilled
Workers Unskilled Professionals workers Service Agr
ture / workers & Technicians Industry
Arabs 5.0% 8.35% 1.4% 6.35% 12.3% 52.0% 14.45%
Jews 13.5% 15.0% 5.7% 19.45% 16.8% 21.7% 8.15%

These figures indicate the overall concentration of the Arab workforce in the last two categories. Two-thirds of the Arab workers are skilled and unskilled manual laborers, while less than 30% of Jews are employed in these sectors. The numbers in the Israel Electric Company are even more dramatic. Although this workplace has no connection to the military (national security is a common rationale for closing Arabs out of specific professions), the company counts only 5 Arabs are among its 11,000 workers. This situation, which has remained much the same for the last 40 years, reflects the structural discrimination which is deeply embedded in the Israeli economy. What is new is the general economic slump which has pushed many businesses either into bankruptcy or into moving production lines to countries where labor is cheaper. The result is fewer work opportunities for all. In consequence, employers in Jewish towns who used to integrate Arabs from surrounding areas into their payrolls are deciding in ever increasing numbers to take Jewish workers only.

Employment Bureaus (EBs) in Arab Towns - Systematic Discrimination

The discrimination in employment policy is affecting Arab workers indirectly through the way EBs in Arab areas treat the local unemployed. In addition to subjecting applicants to the arbitrary treatment faced by all unemployed, EBs in Arab towns have no work opportunities to offer. The demand from the Finance Ministry and Central EA is to reduce the unemployment rate by any means possible. The most effective method is to get unemployed workers to stop registering and thus drop out of the statistics. 

In theory, local Employment Bureaus (EBs) are to send unemployed persons to potential work places. If the workers do not turn up within 24 hours, or if they refuse the job, they are labeled refusers, and they do not receive benefits for three months. But an official scam has developed, abusing this system. On September 1 the Ministry of the Treasury told the EA to cut the number of those receiving benefits in order to reduce national expenditures. Journalist Hagar Enosh (Yediot Aharonot) revealed that 10,000 unemployed persons were labeled refusers in August 1998, and that the ministry set up quotas of workers to be categorized as refusers. She claimed that a bonus was offered to EA chief Moshe Dimri and his managers if they succeeded in cutting 150 million NIS from the 1.2 billion NIS that the Treasury was scheduled to pay in unemployment benefits before December 1998. 

WAC believes that this policy, with regard to Arabs, dates back to the spring. However, the situation has worsened in recent months. The following case, in which dozens of jobless Arab women from Nazareth appealed to WAC after the local EB labeled them refusers, is an example of the tactics used to cut spending on unemployment benefits: The Nazareth EB told the women to wait near its offices at 6 a.m. one morning for a contractor named Assad Zu'abi, who would take them to work in olive orchards near Beisan. The contractor never appeared. After waiting for three consecutive mornings, the women asked the EB what had happened, only to learn that they were already registered as refusers. The women took the case to the special committee of the Nazareth EB, which disregarded their appeal. Only after four months, and after WAC appealed the case to Labor Court, were the women summoned to the Appeals Committee and their status as refusers canceled. The unemployed have the right (in theory, at least) to appeal against an EB decision so as to mitigate unfair or arbitrary treatment by EB clerks. As the above case shows, these Appeal Committees do not function in their stated role. Many registered refusers wait months for a hearing. All forms are in Hebrew, and the appellants often do not understand procedures. Lines are long and staff few. It all adds up to humiliating treatment.

No one stands by the Arab workers

The Histadrut (the General Federation of Israeli Workers), preoccupied with its large debts, has cut back its activity in the Arab towns and villages. Consequently, Arab membership in the Histadrut has dropped from 250,000 to 50,000 since 1994 (from the Histadrut Comptroller's Report for 1997). Even in its heyday, the Histadrut never fought the structural discrimination against Arabs in Israel's economy. Today, struggling for survival, it pins its hopes on the support of the strong workers' committees in government-owned firms like the electric company, El Al airlines and the Israel aviation industry, all of which are "Arab free". The present Histadrut agenda has no regard for the lack of infrastructure and industry in Arab towns or the high rates of unemployment there. Arab public opinion, which is totally dominated by western values of success and influence, neglects working-class issues. In rural Arab society, where traditional habits of solidarity have been destroyed, one finds a total lack of working-class awareness. The members of the new Arab middle class, employed in government or private business, have turned their backs on their unemployed brothers and sisters. Most Arab parties and institutions are dominated by the professionals of this new bourgeoisie, people who have lost all radical perspective and who do not value the social potential of the Arab working class. 

It is against this background that WAC’s activities among Arab workers and the unemployed resound loud and clear.

WAC - Organize the Unemployed to Fight Back

In the face of this tragedy, WAC does not confine itself to the spheres of information-gathering or criticism of the system. In its first year of activity, WAC has become a crucial player in the fight of unemployed Arab workers. In Nazareth, Kufr Kana, Majd al-Krum and other Arab areas, both the unemployed and the EBs have begun to feel that the days of the "Wild West" are over. The staff of the EBs knows that no arbitrary decision will go unnoticed. The unemployed know that someone is on their side. WAC activists visit EBs regularly-- twice a week. They help people with procedures, distribute leaflets and give legal and moral support to the unemployed. Many unemployed workers later turn to WAC offices for help and advice. Starting in January 1999, WAC’s lawyer, Ahmad Saadi, a specialist in labor law, has met workers and unemployed in our Nazareth office once a week. On the official level, WAC appeals regularly to the EA's Bureau of Public Complaints and to the National Insurance Institute in the name of workers and unemployed. In some cases our appeals have led to the correction of mistakes, and allowances have been paid after long and unexplained delays. WAC concentrates much of its effort on mobilization of workers. Regardless of our concrete gains with some 100 workers, WAC is aware of the fact that it is only through the radical change of the system that a solution can be found. In October WAC started a campaign to gather the signatures of 1000 unemployed for a petition against the EA's arbitrary procedures. This campaign was widely covered by the Arab press. It made a huge impact on the atmosphere inside the EBs in the Nazareth area.

In the forthcoming May Day conference, WAC aims to bring the fate of the Arab working class and the unemployed to the top of the agenda of Arab and Israeli public opinion. We urge all progressive movements, trade unions, NGOs, and interested groups and individuals who support our work to make an effort to send a delegation to our conference. We will welcome messages of solidarity from those of you who are unable to attend.