The workers strike at Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot entered its eighth day today, with no indication that bank management and the workers are even negotiating with one another anymore.
Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot is the fourth largest bank in Israel, and the largest mortgage bank in the country, holding 37% of the mortgages. The strike is causing disruptions in the mortgage loan market.
The workers claim the bank did not sign updated contract agreements with the workers in 2016-2017, which affects 4300 employees, and want new contracts moving forward.
As of three days ago, a report in The Marker said the two sides were close to an agreement on all the terms, raises and bonuses through 2020, but the worker’s representatives blew up the negotiations over two issues they wouldn’t accept, specifically no more striking during the period the new contracts are in force, and a voluntary retirement plan.
The bank’s management claims that 95% of the branches are open, but many of them are only being manned by managers, are unable to provide full service.
Mortgage clients are the one’s most negatively affected by the strike, as they are unable to get mortgages or even quotes for mortgages to compare rates with quotes from other banks.
Around the same time Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot began their strike, another strike was launched by the Histadrut workers union at Bank Igud, a small Israeli which Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot is planning to acquire.