Train service was shut down nationwide yesterday when railroad workers called a wildcat strike after 10 of their colleagues, including the railway union’s top officials, were arrested during a demonstration Wednesday evening that turned violent.

Service was halted at midnight and resumed only at 2 P.M. yesterday. The effects were particularly severe because Thursday, the last day of the work week, is a very heavy travel day.

Open gallery view Travellers waiting at the Be’er Sheva station after discovering no trains were running yesterday morning. Credit: Eliyahu Hershkovitz

To ease the plight of stranded travelers, the Transportation Ministry activated an emergency plan under which 120 additional buses were deployed on routes normally served by the train. The buses were taken from private companies and the public bus cooperatives’ reserves, at a cost of about NIS 500,000 a day.

But the buses were sent to the central bus stations rather than the train stations, and in many cities, these stations are nowhere near each other.

Passengers were outraged not only at the strike, but at Israel Railways’ failure to inform them of it.

“No one said anything to me at the entrance to the station,” said Moshe Vladimirsky, who waited in vain for his train at Tel Aviv’s Arlosoroff Station yesterday morning. “I paid for my ticket, and only here, at the turnstile [to the platform], did I realize something wasn’t right. If there’s a strike, why not tell us in advance? Now I just hope they’ll compensate me for the ticket.”

Raheli Leon said she was two and a half hours late to work and ultimately had to pay for a taxi to get there. Not only were the trains not running, “but the buses were so full that they weren’t even stopping at the bus stops. So I ended up both having to pay for a taxi and wasting valuable time.”

Travelers weren’t the only ones to suffer. Stores and kiosks at the train stations saw revenues evaporate due to the strike, as did taxi drivers who normally serve the stations.

Wednesday’s demonstration, to protest a planned reform of Israel Railways, took place outside company chairman Uri Yogev’s house in Re’ut. But it quickly degenerated into a brawl between workers and police, who tried to move the demonstrators away from the house.

Police ultimately arrested 10 workers, including union chairwoman Gila Aderi and her deputy, Shai Tal. One of the 10 was arrested for assaulting a policeman and the others for demonstrating illegally; the permit specified only 60 demonstrators, but in fact, 150 showed up.

The union then announced that unless all 10 were released, the workers would strike at midnight which they did.

At 2:30 A.M., Israel Railways obtained a temporary back-to-work order from the Tel Aviv Labor Court. But the union ignored the order, saying it had no way to notify the workers at that hour.

At 7 A.M., the court extended the back-to-work order until another hearing on Monday. But the workers once again ignored the order, saying they would not return to work until their comrades were released from jail.

Only after the arrested demonstrators were released on bail by the Ramle Magistrate’s Court later that day did the workers return to work. Regular train service finally resumed at about 2 P.M.

Israel Railways initially asked the labor court to fine the union and the Histadrut labor federation for having violated the back-to-work orders, but withdrew that request after the strike ended. However, it does plan to sue the union for damages, which it said totaled NIS 3 million.

Management blamed the strike squarely on union leader Aderi, saying that labor relations have deteriorated drastically since she took office nine months ago. It also accused her of “undermining Israel Railways and hurting the traveling public solely out of a personal interest in raising the chairwoman’s status.”

The Histadrut, in contrast, blamed the police’s “irresponsibility.” The labor federation had earlier rejected management’s plea to intercede with the workers, saying the strike was justified under a labor dispute declared last month over the planned reform.

That labor dispute, and the possibility that it could produce a prolonged strike, is what led the Transportation Ministry to prepare its emergency busing plan.

The union says the planned reform amounts to “privatization.” Both Israel Railways and the ministry deny this, saying it mainly consists of steps to improve safety.