Histadrut Labor Federation Chairman Ofer Eini on Wednesday threatened Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid with a general strike over expected budget cuts that could cut workers pay.
"Should our request not be immediately complied with, we intend to use all possible means at our disposal in order to protect the rights of the workers and prevent harm to the public workers and retirees," Eini wrote in a letter to Netanyahu and Lapid, demanding that they immediately include him in budget negotiations.
"The budget proposal contains tough economic cuts that will hurt the economic condition of the public workers and the retirees, a public struggling under a heavy burden that includes the middle class as well as the lower class," he wrote.
On Tuesday night, Lapid said he was prepared for "war" over the budget, specifically saying he would reconsider "ancient agreements," a reference to the collective wage agreements signed by previous governments with the Histadrut.
Responding during a speech at the Knesset to mark Theodor Hertzl's 153rd birthday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said he would not be cowed by strikes and promised to move forward with economic reforms.
"Following the cellular and open skies [reforms], next week we will bring reforms to cheapen private cars in Israel, and after that will come a huge reform at the Israeli ports, and then we will cheapen a variety of products," he said.
"Let me stress: No strike will deter us," he continued. "It's impossible to build a strong economy without increasing competition."
Opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich decried Netanyahu's agenda, saying that today's economic realities were far from Hertzl's vision of free education and a strong welfare state.
"Yes, I know the worldview that believes the state should be run like a business, and neglects the people, and produces unbearable inequality among them, and sows discord between the nation's groups, and cuts more and more from the nation and sheds more and more responsibility to its citizens," she said. "It's almost always accompanied by pompous slogans and lofty rhetoric from those carry it out."