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riding reason: The economic
policies of the Netanyahu ad-
ministration. The specific reasons
were the tax increases, subsidy
cuts and mass dismissals of state
employees included in the gov-
ernment's budget proposal, and
the plans to privatize state-owned
businesses, which would bring
more firings.
To these injuries an insult was
added: The Histadrut's number
two official, Shlomo Shani, was
arrested — though soon released
— after failing to show up in court
for a hearing on the strike. In Is-
rael's long, stormy history of la-
bor relations, the arrest of such a
high Histadrut official might have
been unprecedented, said Mr.
Friedman.
While Mr. Netanyahu claimed
that most workers opposed the
union leadership, and gave as-
surances that a "reasonable" His-
tadrut had "an important role to
play in this country," Mr. Peretz
and his lieutenants took the gov-
ernment's stance as a rejection of
their right to exist.
"Workers in other countries
have paid with their blood for the
right to strike," Mr. Peretz said.
Rivka Baram, a striking Tel
Aviv social worker, said that while
she and her colleagues had no
complaints about salary, they
were all for the strike because oth-
er people's jobs had to be protect-
ed, and because something had
to be done to stop the erosion of
public services.
"I used to have a caseload of
180 clients, but now I have 230
because one of the social workers
just got laid off," she said. "It's
ridiculous."
But Ms. Baram didn't think
the public at-large was with her
and her colleagues. "I have a
friend who's a nurse at a private
hospital, and she's not striking,
and she said, 'How can you do
this? Look at all the suffering
you're causing."'
The strike broke out, Mr. Fried-
man said, not only because of the
government's inexperience and
arrogance, but also because of the
Histadrut's desperation.
During the union's glory days,
which ended with the election of
the Likud in 1977, the Histadrut
included 90 percent of Israel's
workforce, owned the largest com-
panies, provided health care to
nearly all citizens, and had a cra-
dle-to-grave network of social ben-
efits and activities that amounted
to a unionist culture.
But as Israel grew increasing-
ly capitalistic, more workers
turned to self-employment, and
companies began instituting per-
sonal contracts.
Today the Histadrut repre-
sents a minority of the workforce,
most of its companies and assets
have been sold off, and its health
care system has shrunk. The
union's prestige, power and fi-
nancial solvency have steadily
eroded.

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