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Leonard Mars to the IPA. This promise threatened the men from -J aif a who had already been offered The Authority and the Port 9f Ashdod employment in the new port. They were veteran The , which is located 25 miles and experienced port workers who did south of Tel Aviv, was opened to commercial not see why their livelihood should be jeopardised traffic in November, 1965, and its opening resulted by new immigrants with no experience of port inthe closing of two of the country's small work. The dilemma facing the IPA, that of com- Mediterranean ports, , which had been in mencing operations during a trade recession with operation for at least 3,000 years,2 and Tel Aviv, anexcessof labour, was partlyresolved by which had begun operationsin1936., offering severance pay which exceeded anything hitherto Israel's only large port, situated in the hitherto paid to redundant workers. Even so, 319 north of the country also felt, though less drasti- dockworkers made the move south and 485 Sold cally, the impact of Ashdod's competition, since it Boneh labourers joined the IPA. suffered an immediate decline in the volume of cargo that it handled. One consequence of thisstrike was that port workers realised their power to put pressure on The first men to be employed as permanent port their employer, the IPA, by virtue of their crucial workers in Ashdod were recruited from two dif- position in the national economy. Government ferent backgrounds: from the defunct ports of action signified the overruling of port manage- Tel Aviv and Jaffa, and from the ranks of the ment on what it had regarded hitherto as one of labourers who had been employed by the building its prerogatives, namely the recruitment of man- contractors, Sold Boneh3 during the four years power. This submission was reaffirmed in 1967 thatithad takento construct the port. The when workers exerted pressure on the IPA, via the original intention of the Israel Ports Authority government, to accept yet more port workers. (IPA) had been to recruit its labour from the ports of Tel Aviv and Jaffa and to augment The IPA, which is a state-owned corporation, was thisforcegraduallyastheport of Ashdod established in1961 after the Israeli Parliament developed. However,thelabourersengaged had passed the Ports Authority Law earlier that intheconstruction of the new port,mainly year. Although responsible to the Ministry of new immigrants, became concerned about their Transport, the IPA is independent in its finances future employment as the port neared completion, and operations, and is governed by a 15-member and staged a strike in October, 1965. Their chief board, eight of whom represent public economic demand was that they be granted employment bodies (shipping lines, the Export Institute, the as dock workers whentheport commenced Citrus Marketing Board, the Histadruth or General operation. This strike occurred shortly before the Federation of Labour, the Manufacturers' Asso- general electionof 2nd November, 1965 and ciation and the Haifa Labour Council) and six during a period of economic recession so that of whom represent government ministries,all there was considerable pressure on the govern- presided over by an independent chairman. ment not only to act promptly, but also to be seen to act promptly. The government quickly According toits statute, the IPA must manage responded to the strike and promised that the the country's three ports (Haifa, Ashdod and workers would be transferred from So/el Boneh ) in general and each one separately as a viableeconomicunit,byatleastbalancing revenue and expenditure,thelatterincluding 1 The research was carried out in1970/71 under the direction development costs, interest and depreciation. The of the lateProfessor Max Gluckman of the Universityof Manchester on Reseatch Grant 779/1 of the Srcial Science IPA must therefore be a profit-making concern Research Counci, of reat Britain.Ittthe summer cf 1977 a furthert ant HR5209 from the SSRC has enabled me to without recourse to government subsidies and pursue a limited follow- study. rising costs must be met either by raising tariffs 2 Jaffa (Jopua in Creek), 2 Chronicles Chap. 2 v16 and Ezra Chap. 3 v7. or increased productivity. Higher tariffs are bound 3 Sole!Bonehthe largestcenstructioncompanyinIsrael, to affect the sectional interests of at least some owned by 'he Htstadruth (the General Federation of Labour). of the members of the board, though ultimate

33 decision on proposals to raise tariffs would have published in September, 1970, had already to be ratified by the Government. This is one withdrawn from the coalition government and the of the basic issues pertaining to the IPA on which Ministry of Transport was once again in the the Government retains the final say (another is hands of the Achdut Avodah faction, now a the development budget). The Government also member of the Labour party. appoint members of the IPA's board, the Director of the IPA and the managers of the individual The IPA, its employees and the Government are ports. allsensitiveto public opinion, which each of them attemptstoinform andtomobilise in Hence the same statutethat grants the IPA support of its case in dockland disputes. Hence independence alsorestrictsthat autonomy by in 1970 the largest Works Committee in the port reserving certain basic issues for the Government. of Ashdod appointed a local newspaper owner as Apart from thesestatutory limitations on its its public relations adviser in view ol the un- independence the Authority is also susceptible to favourable publicity thatit had incurred as a the influence and policies of the Government and result of a series of strikes in the port; the Works to pressures that groups and organisations can Committee madethisappointment because of exert on the Government so that in fact the IPA what it considered to be the biased statements of is a government agency. Thus the wider national thepublicrelationsofficers employed by the interests that the Government has to take into Authority at Head Office and at each of the three consideration may further infringe what senior ports. officials J the Authority regard as their preroga- tives. Labour leaders in the ports as well as man- Because of the need for regular consultations agement are aware of the real locus of decision- between the 1PA on the one hand and government making in disputes between them. From experience ministries, banks, the Histadruth, and clients on labour leaders know that pressure can be exerted the other, IPA headquarters were located in Tel on the IPA by the Histadruth and by government Aviv. Proximity to these bodies is indicative of ministries, particularly those of Labour and Trans- the role of headquarters inrelation toits con- port. The IPA and its employees also recognise stituents, the three ports. Although each port is the power of the Histadruth and each has sought independent in its operations and free to compete its aid in settling disputes in the port of Ashdod wïth the other ports in attracting clients, head- and in other ports. quarters determines development projects, man- power policy, wage policy, and budgets, and there- Prior to general elections the power of workers in fore requires close and immediate contact with relation to that of management is enhanced, as the institutions that deal with these matters. Port was revealed by the strike of the construction workers interpretthis location as indicative of workers who built the port. Party politics also the remoteness of the IPA from the daily life of affecttherelations between management and the ports, and regard the officials in Tel Aviv as labour in Israel where government ministries are bureaucrats who know little,if anything, about divided among the political parties that form the the waterfront. They consider that 1-lead Office ruling coalition. Thus change in the composition should have been situatedin either Ashdod or of the cabinet can result in a shuffling of minis- Haifa though this would have inevitably aroused terial posts among the parties. For example, after the indignation of one of the two ports. the1969 electionsthe Ministry of Transport, which since 1948 had been a preserve of Achdut Avodah4, was allocated to Ga/ia!, a right-wing The town of Ashdod political party that had first entered the govern- The town of Ashdod has experienced rapid growth ment shortly before the Six Days War in June, sinceitscreationin1956, especially after the 1967. The new ministerreceived leading port subsequent decisiontoconstruct adeep-water in workers from Ashdod the home ofthe port there. From 4,600 in1961the, population mayor of Ashdod, who was also a member of rose to23.300 in1965 and to approximately Galia!, and subsequently agreed to set up an 38,000 in1971. Most of this increase was due to inquiryintolabourrelationsinthe portof immigration, particularly of new immigrants to Ashdod. However, by the time the report was Israel. Thus in1965 over half of the population (12,000) had conic to Israel since 1961. Not only 4 Ach'Jut Avodah--a left-wing party which in 1965 was a mem- were the town's inhabitants new immigrants but ber of the Alignment with which in 1969 was a con- stituentfounder ofthe Irael Labour Party with Rai j and they were young: one half below the age of 19 Mapai. and two-thirds below the-age of 30. Thus Ashdod

34 is a rapidly growing new town, populated mainly officials at Histadruth HQ in Tel Aviv, and to by young immigrants and their numerous children. government ministries in .

As the largest single employer in the town, the In short, because of the divided allegiance of its port with its workers is of great concern to local members, its inadequate manpower resources, and politicians, who see it as a strong base for their thestrategic national importance of the port parties, who show considerableinterestinits leading to the direct involvement of national affairs. In the national and local elections held bodies, the local Labour Council is weaker than its nominal inferior,the local committee of dock simultaneouslyin 1969,Ashdod was one of several local authorities which voted for one party workers. at national level and for another at local level The growth of the port (Arian1972:103). Nationally the town voted for the left-wing Alignment, a coalition based on Ashdod port expanded rapidly during the first the Labour parties of Mapai, Achdut Avodah, years ofitsoperation and this expansion was and Mapam, but locally it elected Gahal, a significant not only for its own workers but also right-wing alliance between and the General for employees inIsrael'sother Mediterranean Zionists (later Liberal) Party. This was the first port. Haifa, which competes for cargoes with time in Ashdod's short history that the Labour Ashdod. The initial effect of Ashdod's opening in parties had not controlled the town and this Haifa was that the latter suffered a decline in rejection expressed dissatisfaction with the Align- the handling of both exports and imports as some ment on local issues including a dispute between of these moved to its young rival. Thus it was not the Histadruth, which is controlled by the Align- until 1969/70 that Haifa exceeded the amount of ment, and the Works Committee of the dockers cargo that it handled in 1965/66. of the Port of Ashdod. The Alignment's candi- date for mayor was also the Head of the Admin- The opening of Ashdod port reduced not only the istrative Department of the Port, which supported volume of trade passing through Haifa port but the Histadruth in the dispute, and the Labour also the political power of 1-Taifa port workers. coalition lost votes as a result of this. When the ports of Tel Aviv and Jaffa were Haifa's only rivals the latter's workers did not need to Although the right wing Gahal gained control of seek an alliance with the men from the southern the town council, nevertheless the Labour parties, ports since they were not competing for cargoes through their domination of the Ashdod Labour because Tel Aviv and Jaffa were lighterage ports Council (the local branch of the Histadruth) have and handled only a few per month. How- effective political and economic control over many ever, when the Haifa men went on strike, they local enterprises, including those owned or ad- appealed to the Ashdod workers not to accept ministered by the Histadruth. Examples are Ku pat diverted ships. Ho/ini, the Histudruth Sick Fund which provides medical care to most of the town's residents, and One outcome of rapid expansion and subsequent the sports and youth clubs which attract many opportunities for promotion in the early stages of Ashdod's youth. Ashdod port workers sit on was that expectations of advancement came to be the Labour Council asthe representatives of considered the norm, and this led to disappoint- political parties. The Labour Council has a depart- ment by 1971 when workers who had been em- ment concerned with trade union affairs which ployed perhaps six months or a year less than has the authority to declare a strike legal, thereby their workmates felt their promotion prospects granting official Histadruth support to the striking blocked. In addition men who had gained pro- workers. Consequently their roles as port workers motion from stevedore to fork-lift truck driver and Council members may come into conflict. found themselves earning less than before since there was no work for them in their new occu- The manpower resources of the local branch of pation and they had to remain on stand-by with the Histadruth are limited and so one official no chance of earning bonuses. deals full-time with all the works committees in all the enterprises in Ashdod, including the six Promotion was not confined to rank and file committees in the port. Because of the local and workers, since their elected leaders, members of national importance of the port, its manager and theWorkers'CommitteeoftheOperations evenhissuperior,thesecretaryofthe local Department also benefited and became foremen. Labour Council, are often bypassed when disputes Thus three predecessors of the current Secretary occur, since local workers may appeal directly to of the Workers' Committee of the Operations 35 Department gained promotion between 1965 and The Operations Department is characterised by its 1967, as did other members of that Committee. dominance within the port, by the transience of Changes inthe membership of the Operations its basic unit, and by the high degree of segmen- Workers' Committeeaffectedrelationshipsbe- tation among the department's workers which tweenthe Committee andport management, derives from the diversity of occupations. Thus especiallywhen onecommittee refused to the department containsthree separate works acknowledge agreements reached by itsprede- committees, one for foremen, one for warehouse- cessor. men, and one for the men who work in gangs assisted by the crane and fork-lift operators. This last committee, whichisstyled the Operations Thus rapid expansion created a situation of fluidity Committee,itselfrepresentsa wide range of both within the ranks of the workers and in their occupations. relationships with management. As far as manage- ment was concerned, the turnover in leadership Against this background of transient working among port workers createdproblems about relationships we have onestablefixture,the continuity and predictability in relationships so Operations Committee, to which the dockers can that management itself became interested in the turn when they have problems, whether about establishment and maintenance of a stable leader- pay, conditions of employment, promotion, and, for port workers. in some cases, domestic problems. The position and strength of the Operations Committee in the The port of Ashdod had 1.501 permanent employ- port which arises out of the segmentation of its ees on 31st March, 1970 distributed among five workers, is enhanced by the status which manage- dejartments: ment accords it in dealing with those workers and their problems. Admin. Engin.Finance Marine OperationsTotal Manaement has acquiesced to the incorporation 52 97 74 111 1,167 1,501 of the Operations Committee into the administra- tive organisation of the port. This incorporation, however, was not granted to the Committee as istheOperations Depart- By farthelargest an automatic right but was achieved as a result ment whose main task is the loading, unloading and storage of cargo. Space precludes a long des- of a series of confrontations between management cription of the occupational complexities of this and workers, when management lost complete department (but see Mars, forthcoming), suffice control over the recruitment of labour, over the it to say that the basic work unit is the gang of promotion of workers and managerial officials stevedores, assisted by winchmen or coastal crane and over the timing and holding of occupational operators and by fork-lift truck operators whose coarses. Outwardly and officially, management has the decisive say in these work is co-ordinated by the gang leader, known claims thatitstill as the signaller, all of whom are supervised by a matters, and the Operations Committee is content foreman. The gang is not a stable unit since its to help maintain this front since it enables it to composition may be modified by technological hold power without being publiclyresponsible factors such as the type of crane employed, the for the administration of the department or of the of the cargo (which may require more or port. less workers), and workers' norms. For example, The first major confrontation between manage- the principle ofseniorityiscriticallyrelevant nient and the workers in the Operations Depart- when work is scarce so that junior signallers may ment took place in December, 1966 and early have to stand down and their gangs be dispersed. 1967. a period of economic recession in Israel The basic cause of fluctuation in the composition when there was little work in the port. This con- of the work gang is the seasonal flow of work. frontation was known as the Strike of the Forty, The permanent work force is sufficient to man 45 and its origins are to be found in the agreement work gangs per day and at the height of the citrus to transfer labourers engaged in construction of season between 65 and 67 gangs are required. the port from So/el Bone/i to the employment of This is achieved by the recruitment of temporary the Authority which was signed by the latter and labourers from thelabour exchanges inand the /i.This agreement stipulated that around Ashdod. At this time winchmen become those who had been in employment with the con- signallers and stevedores with winchmen's certifi- structor on and prior to 31st December. 1963 cates move up on deck and are replaced in turn would have the right of transfer. There were in the hold by temporary, unskilled workers. labourers who had commenced work after that

36 date hut before the port was officially opened in The Minister of Labour in his arbitration found November, 1965. Among them were the forty that the Authority was right to deny the forty labourers who staged a hunger strike in the offices permanent employment, but argued that the port of the Ashdod Labour Council and outside the of Ashdod was an expanding concern and there- gates of the port. fore it should grant the forty the status of 'mini- mum workers', i.e., a transitional status between The forty had been employed as temporary port temporary and permanent workers which guaran- workers since the opening of the port and had teed the worker a minimum number of days' work been given the impression by the Works Com- per mouth gradually increasing over a period of years until he became a full-time employee. (This mittee that they too would be granted permanent status was abolished in 1969.) status,despite thefact that they were clearly excluded by the terms of the agreement. The local As a result of this verdict, the port manager of Labour Council, after initially opposing the forty, Ashdod resigned on the grounds that his position decided to give them backing. The permanent had become untenable. Port management con- workers were divided on theissue; those who sidered that the verdict had given the workers subscribed to the view that the legal agreement the green light to repudiate signed agreements and should be honoured were overruled by more to use naked force to back up their demands in militant men, some of whom came from the rank the knowledge that the Government and the and file, among them the current Secretary of 1-tistadruth would give them support. The Govern- the Works Committee, who decided to back the ment, however, took into consideration factors demands of the forty. that were outside the scope of port management such as the social, economic and political prob- After progressing through the various stages for lems of development towns populated by new settling disputes, management, workers and their immigrants during a period of recession. The representatives in the Labour Council and in the strike leaders, who regarded the verdict as the Trade Union Department oftheHistadruth, triumph of natural justice over the narrow, legal- agreed to submit the question to the arbitration istic attitude of the management, appreciated that of the Minister of Labour. Management based they had to rely on their own efforts rather than their case on two points: those of the Histadruth which had signed the I. that the forty were not covered by the transfer originalagreement. The disputeheraldedthe department; arrival of leaders whose strength derived not from linkswiththe Histadruth,nor with political 2. that the Minister of Labour himself had stated parties, but from within the port itself. However, in the (the Israeli Parliament) that an the emergence of such leaders meant that they enterprise would not be obliged to accept more were courted by political parties and by the workers than were economically required for its Histudruth. operation. The strike was successful because the Committee Management argued that the recruitment of man- was able to mobilise forces, particularly govern- power was its prerogative and that management mental, that lay outside the port, but which could alone would determine, along rational, economic be invoked legitimately as part of the accepted lines,the labour forceitrequired;moreover, procedure for dispute settlement. Another con- duringthecurrentrecessiontherewasnot frontation a few months later, which concerned enough work for the permanent workers, let alone the recruitment of foremen from outside the port for another forty, the equivalent of more than dd not have as successful a conclusion as the two work gangs. Committee had wished, but paved the way for the Committee toinsist thatitwould, in the The Works Committee and the Histadruth con- future, never accept candidates for the post of ceded that management was legally right to ex- foreman from outside the Operations Department clude the forty from permanent employment, but and a fortiori from outside the port, even though they stressed the role of the port in the economy the Labour Agreement stipulates that posts within of the new town of Ashdod and argued that the Authority are open to all of its employees. management should absorb the men in order to establish good willwith the town during the The IPA is thus caught between the demands of recession. They also argued that the port would government ministries and the pressures exerted eventually require additional manpower. byitsemployees.Thus,afterpressure from

37 workers,it relinquished control over areas that for exarnp!e. the dockers can bring the port to could be defined as non-work e.g., the allocation an immediate standstill by their refusal to work. of the canteen licence and the management of a A stoppage in the port is not simply a local event minor insurance fund, since these concessions but a national concern in a small country with could be considered not to be challenges to its two mainports whichconstituteitslifelines. managerialposition.On therecruitmentof Because of the port's national significance, govern- labour, the IPA was legally bound to accept the ment ministers and senior officials of the Hitadruth arbitration of the Minister of Labour, who saw qLuck!y became involved in labour disputes. The the issue as one that reached beyond the confines leaders of the dockers, who have direct contact of the port to embrace the social and economic with such notables, themselves become national welfare of new towns inhabited by new immi- lIgures who owe their position to the local power- grants. In this instance the pressure on the IPA, hase that they have built up in the port quite which had originally come from below, from its independently of political parties or of the local workers, was strengthened from above by the LaboLirCouncil.Thispower,moreover,was government. However, the IPA under itsfirst derived from aseries of industrial conflicts which Director,atough,capable, and independent- challenged the claims of the IPA to jurisdiction minded person, so frequently came into conflict inmatters of recruitment, promotion and tech- with the government, the Histadruth and with the nn!ogical change. dockers, that in 1970 he was ousted from his post after an inter-ministerial Committee of Inquiry on Labour Relations in the port of Ashdod (which seemedto have beenestablished expressly to remove him from office), and was replaced by a Re'erences man from the Foreign Office whom the govern- Arlan, Alan (ed.),1972, The Elections in israel ment hoped would be more flexible and susceptible 1969, Jerusalem Academic Press, Jerusalem to its influence. Israel Ports Authority, 1971, Year Book of Israel The dockers are able to exert pressure on the Ferns' Statistics 1969-70, Tel Aviv government because of the vital economic and Mars, Leonard, Leadership and Power among political role of the port in the national economy. Ashdod Port Workers in E. Marx (ed.), An Unlike some other workers in the port, the admin- Anthropological Portrait of Israel, Van Gorcum, istrative, engineering, and warehouse employees, Amsterdam (forthcoming)

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