Labor MK Eitan Cabel vowed Thursday to take the Histadrut labor federation to
court to challenge the results of Tuesday’s leadership race, even though he lost
by a huge margin to incumbent Histadrut chief Ofer Eini.
With more than
175,000 of some 200,000 votes counted, Eini led Cabel, 66.5 percent to 33.4%.
Eini’s Ogenim list for the Histadrut convention received twice as many votes as
Cabel’s Bayit Hevrati list. Eini’s candidate, Galia Wallach, also beat Cabel
ally Tamar Zandberg to become head of the Na’amat Women’s
organization.
“If someone thinks I will give up and not investigate how
Eini ran this election, I assure you that I do not intend to rest or be silent,”
Cabel said. “The Eini era is over. You can call me the next head of the
Histadrut.”
Cabel vowed to lead a fighting opposition in the Histadrut
using the base that he won in the race. He said he would make sure that Eini
will no longer be able to get away with what he had done in the past, including
pressure tactics against his critics and favoring large unions over smaller
ones.
“Considering that this was a battle of David against Goliath, our
achievement is huge,” Cabel said. “We were up against an organized force that
did everything possible to steal the election.
Despite Eini’s scare
tactics, we got a third of the members to tell him they don’t want him
anymore.”
Eini responded that the vote count was done by an outside
company and the election committee was headed by a former judge. He thanked his
voters for their support and challenged Cabel to take his complaints to the
police.
“The huge victory and clear results prove that the voters chose
my path and they want me to make the Histadrut the strongest socioeconomic
organization in Israel,” Eini said.
Labor Party chairwoman Shelly
Yacimovich congratulated Eini and vowed to cooperate with him on behalf of
workers’ rights and against the socioeconomic policies of Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu’s government.