Spotlight interview with Gershon Gelman (Israel - Histadrut)
"Immigrant workers are heroes who come here to make up for our deficiencies."
Brussels (ICFTU OnLine): Four years ago, the president of Histadrut for the Tel Aviv and Jaffa region, Gershon Gelman,
opened the only trade union structure in Israel for the 150,000 migrants employed in the country. Dozens of migrants now
come to his Tel Aviv office every month to seek advice on how to defend their rights. It is the first union structure of
its kind, a first step forward, that Gershon Gelman would like to take further.
What convinced you to open this office?
A chance encounter. It was at the beginning of 2000. I was sat in a café near the Histadrut office when a group of
Filipino workers, who had recognised me from television, came over to ask if I could give them some information about
their rights. I gave them my contact details and the machine was set in motion! As the weeks passed, the calls for help
became more and more frequent. We were receiving queries and complaints about pay conditions, accommodation, food,
working hours, dismissal requirements...the queries were piling up. Men and women of all nationalities were coming to
me, asking me to mediate with their employers, in many cases, simply to get their pay.
How has the status of migrant workers evolved within Histadrut?
Prior to 2001, there was no trade union structure within Histadrut for these Chinese, Filipino, Thai or African workers,
despite the large numbers of them working in Israel. In 2001, I asked the leadership of my organisation to create an
official structure to handle all the grievances being brought to me, to open an office to receive and provide assistance
to the tens of thousand of nurses, domestic workers, construction or agricultural workers employed here.
I was convinced, and still am, that the rights of the national labour force cannot be protected without the protection
of the migrant workforce. Amir Peretz, who was the President of the general labour confederation, Histadrut, at the
time, suggested that we experiment, with the idea in the region I was responsible for - the Jaffa and Tel Aviv area.
That is how I got started. Today, migrant workers can join Histadrut, but they do not have voting rights - a factor that
explains why so few are members.
What conditions are you working in?
The resources available to me are very meagre, in relation to the scope of the problems to be resolved. No other
structure has been set up in the country, and in Tel Aviv there are only five of us doing this work - on top of all our
other duties. One of the problems we face is the fact that many migrant workers are isolated employees. Some 50,000
Filipinos, for example, are employed here as home carers.
Every one of them works alone, meaning that each one is a separate case and has to be dealt with as such. One of them
called me yesterday, to ask for help with obtaining recognition of her right to change employer. Migrants' work visas
are, you should know, attached to a person or a company, in other words, they cannot work wherever they please. They
have the right to work in one place only, unless the authorities agree otherwise...So, the family this women works for
is refusing to feed her as they should, and have confiscated her passport so that she cannot leave. I intervened in the
case, and it should be
What rights do migrant workers have in Israel?
Legally, they have the same rights as Israeli workers. They should be paid a monthly wage of at least $650, they have
the right to work no more than 168 hours a month, to be paid overtime, and so on. But the situation in reality is very
different. The reasons are many. Every time we intervene to ensure that these rights are respected, the employers assure
us, in all sincerity, that they did not mean to break the law.
True of false, this confirms, in any case, the need to provide migrant workers with training in Israeli law. Many of
them not only have the handicap of not speaking our language, or even English, but they are also affected by their total
ignorance of the legislation in force. That's why, whenever we can, we organise seminars to inform these people about
the labour laws in Israel. We have already held four of them for Filipino employees and two for the Chinese.
Unfortunately, the take-up has not been as large as we expected. Too many people come to us when it's often too late.
How can migrant workers find out about your office?
We regularly publish ads in the press to make ourselves known. We also print leaflets in English and Chinese informing
them of the services on offer, with our address and a telephone number where they can contact us. Word of mouth also
works well.
What proportion of migrant workers are employed in the Israeli labour market?
Seven per cent of the workforce. Just a few years ago, one in ten employees in Israel was a migrant worker. These
workers take on the essential tasks within the national economy that most Israelis do not want to assume. That,
moreover, is the condition on which they are able to come here to work: the employer has to prove that an Israeli
candidate cannot be found. That's why I see these people as heroes - heroes who come to make up for our deficiencies,
then leave once their contract is over.
The massive influx of home carers is linked to the cuts in the public health sector. What is your reaction to this, as a
trade unionist?
There is, indeed, a causal relationship between the cuts in public health care and the massive rise in the number of
women employed to take care of our elderly citizens. I would, of course, prefer it if the public health system could
take in more people...care for them in good conditions, which is not always the case nowadays.
Aside from the home carers, most of these people have replaced the Palestinian workers, to whom Israel has been
allocating very few work permits since the beginning of the Second Intifada. What would become of the migrant workers if
the peace process between Israel and Palestine were to make headway?
What would happen if the peace process were to succeed? The Palestinians would undoubtedly come back to work here in the
construction or agricultural sectors and some of the migrants would return home. But don't forget that the Palestinians
will also need to rebuild their own economy.
What hopes do you have for the future?
First of all, that other offices of this kind will be opened in the country. We cannot receive everyone - we neither
have the time nor the resources. What's more, many workers are not able to travel all the way to Tel Aviv. I know that
there are many people in the trade union movement who are still worried about these workers competing with the national
labour force. They are mistaken. There is no such competition. Moreover, let's be serious: in Israel, like in every
other part of the world, the only thing employers are concerned about is cutting their labour costs.
So how could one possibly fail to be concerned about a decline in the working conditions of migrant workers? They are
the same as ours. Another thing I hope to see, is greater cooperation with European and International trade union
organisations. We need to share information about the different mechanisms that exist in the area of support and
guidance for migrant workers. We need help to deal with this problem, which we are trying to cope with a
What demands would you make of the government in this respect?
While we accept that the Israeli labour market cannot be opened up to all, we expect more consideration on the part of
the political, administrative and police authorities for these people, who everyone knows we need. We have suffered
enough to know how important it is to respect and understand others.
Interview by Martine Hassoun
(Encadré)
Kav La'oved
For 15 year there has been another structure in Tel Aviv that provides support and assistance to migrant workers, a
non-governmental organisation called Kav La'oved, founded in 1991 by a handful of jurists. The organisation has long
supplemented the work of the trade union movement in this area.
Until the mid nineties, most of its dealings were with Palestinian workers, legal and illegal. Tens of thousands of
these workers (140,000 officially), used to earn a living in construction, agriculture or hostelry, on the other side of
the border. They have been replaced by Chinese, Thai, African or Romanian workers. Kav La'oved continues with its
mission: giving advice, information, legal assistance, defending migrant workers' rights, visiting workplaces, providing
legal aid, representing them in court and drawing up studies and information. Its twelve employees, backed by a team of
35 volunteers, tackle this mammoth task every day from its offices near the city's bus station. Last year, Kav La'oved
handled 2,200 complaints and supported in court some 500 people - Palestinians, migrants and even Israelis.
A few months ago, the organisation established new ties in the West Bank. In addition to its longstanding relations with
the PGFTU in Qalqiliya, it is now cooperating with the Jericho branch of this Palestinian trade union federation, in
order to defend the Palestinian workers employed in the Israeli industrial colonies established there. At the beginning
of April, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled in favour of a petition it had lodged, with five other associations,
to give migrants the freedom to work for an employer other than the one that brought them into the country. According to
Hanna Zohar, the head of the organisation: "If Histadrut were to evolve and take over the role we have been fulfilling
since 1991, we would be quite happy to disappear."
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