Stoppage at BTL as Pratt & Whitney stall negotiations

At noon today, BTL Blade Technology employees will hold a work stoppage at the company’s two factories in Nahariya and Tefen. The action comes as Pratt & Whitney continues to drag its feet in finding a buyer for the factory held by the American company following the unilateral decision to shutdown the Israeli company.

Last month, Histadrut Chairman Arnon Bar-David visited BTL factories and met workers.

Following a joint meeting of the representatives of Pratt & Whitney in Israel and the VP of Human Resources of BTL with the workers’ committee, the representatives of the trade union, and the chairman of the Western Galilee area of the Histadrut Asher Shmueli. At the meeting, Pratt & Whitney representatives announced that the decision to dismiss the 900 employees remains in place. Since the company’s announcement, four different offers to purchase the plant have materialized. The representatives of the American company clarified that they would deal with the bidders regarding the purchase, a move that they claim will take several months.

In light of the results of the meeting, workers of the company will hold a general meeting of BTL employees today in Tefen at 11:00 am and in Nahariya at noon. After that, and until the end of the day, there will be a work stoppage at the plants to prevent layoffs and to demand Pratt and Whitney sell the factories.

Chairman of the Western Galilee region of the Histadrut Asher Shmueli: “It seems that this response is intended to delay and not advance negotiations and the sale of the plant. We clarified that this delay is unacceptable and that the Histadrut and the workers demand Pratt & Whitney immediately enter negotiations with the four bidding companies.”

“If there is no response after this step, there will be no escape from shutting down the company completely,” Shmueli added, “We received another offer from an American company that deals in the field and is interested in purchasing the company. The offer went to Histadrut Chairman Arnon Bar-David, who is personally involved in the process. This proposal did not receive serious attention either, and the CEO of the plant, Igor Karpovinsky, said that he would forward the proposal to the management. A month has passed since the announcement of the mega-attack against labor. We are not ready for this dragging of feet when the livelihoods of hundreds of workers are at stake.”