Chairman Ofer Eini runs the Histadrut like a mafia kingpin, MK Eitan Cabel
(Labor) said on Monday, launching his campaign to lead the labor
union.
Cabel presented “The Social Home,” his new party in the Histadrut
labor federation elections, at a press conference in Tel Aviv, saying that if
Eini continues as chairman, there will no longer be an organized labor union in
Israel.
“Eini has a reign of terror and threats, and we will break
it. Every country has its own Tahrir Square,” the MK said. “He forces
people to tell him he’s their king, like in North Korea or
Syria.”
According to the Labor MK, Eini turned the Histadrut into a
“Byzantine court” by appointing his wife and brother to key jobs and became
“part of the system” by cooperating with a “destructive, capitalist”
government.
MKs Avi Duan (Kadima) and Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) attended
the press conference, showing their support for The Social Home, which has the
backing of Kadima, Meretz and Hadash. Labor, Cabel’s party, has endorsed Eini,
and threatened last month to punish Cabel should he pursue the Histadrut
leadership.
Cabel accused Eini of betraying workers and favoring tycoons,
employers and the Finance Ministry.
“The Histadrut is meant to be a
protective wall around workers, not a place where they are seen as a production
line without a soul,” Cabel said. “The Histadrut has become old and worn
out.”
Cabel and Tamar Zandberg, a Tel Aviv councilwoman and The Social
Home’s candidate to lead the Na’amat women’s organization, both criticized Eini
for not taking part in last summer’s social protests.
According to
Zandberg, Eini disappeared at the most important moment for a social
organization, and Cabel’s campaign is the first political expression of the
protests.
“This race is David versus Goliath,” Zandberg
quipped. “We’re smaller, but we’re right and we’ll win.”
Eini’s
campaign responded to Cabel later Monday, saying that hundreds of thousands of
new workers have joined the Histadrut since he became chairman.
According
to Eini’s campaign, Cabel’s “only experience in labor issues is canceling Labor
Party workers’ collective agreement when he served as the party’s
secretary-general, and has not passed one bill for workers in all his years in
the Knesset or led any kind of public campaign for workers.”
In light of
these factors, Cabel should not “preach, curse, slander or defame,” Eini’s camp
added. “Cabel should realize that the Histadrut leadership is not just another
political job.”