Histadrut beats union buster in court

The Regional Labor Court in Nazareth determined that Tower Semiconductor Ltd. seriously violated the right of its employees to organize and ordered the company to pay compensation of NIS 550,000 and court fees of NIS 50,000. The fine follows a long series of actions contrary to the law on collective agreements and case law, carried out by senior and middle-level managers that intended to dissuade employees from unionizing. Most of these actions happened in the days and weeks following the Histadrut’s announcement to the management about the appointment of an action committee at the plant at the end of May 2021.

Tower Semiconductor Ltd employs approximately 2,000 workers at the Migdal Ha’emek site and develops and produces parts for the electronics industry. According to the court ruling, the attempts to harm the workers’ organization included, among other things: dozens of gatherings and talks to scare the workers and convey a message that joining the Histadrut would harm them; spreading defamatory statements against the organization efforts; sending links to employees to unsubscribe to the organizing process; publication against organizing in the workers’ groups on WhatsApp and Facebook; preventing the Histadrut representatives from entering the factory; Publicly humiliating a workers committee member; Notice letters to a worker committee member. The ruling also revealed that managers had employees sign membership cancellation forms and helped employees cancel their membership in the Histadrut. Among the cancellations were members of the action committee who resigned. It was determined that the cancellations resulted from management pressure and the massive campaign against organizing. Although the court already issued orders in 2021 requiring Tower Semiconductor Ltd to allow the Histadrut representatives to enter the factory, the company continued to create difficulties, such as allowing such meetings at ineffective times.
Furthermore, the management even established an internal committee through which it tried to send a message to the workers that the Histadrut was unnecessary.

“I am convinced that the representatives and managers of the respondent expressed themselves in a way that constitutes an undue influence on the employees’ possibility to join a preliminary labor organization,” Judge Orit Jacobs stated in the ruling, and added: “It has been proven that the conversations, statements, and actions against the unionization were carried out by managers, and certainly reflected and were the result of ‘The spirit of the commander.'” Therefore, as mentioned, a fine was issued and stated that the company must refrain from any action that is primarily detrimental to organizing.

Chairman of the Northern Amakim District of the Histadrut, Leon Peretz: “I am satisfied with the verdict and hope that workplaces will internalize the legitimate actions of workers who wish to unionize.”

The legal proceedings were managed by Adv. Hanna Shnitser and conducted by Adv. Anat Gutman from the Legal Bureau of the Histadrut Trade Union Division, and Adv. Mor Arzi Gilboa legal advisor from the Histadrut’s Northern Amakim District