'Excessive' rates would ruin Israel Postal Company, union charges

The Israel Postal Company is conducting discussions with the Communications Ministry on a "variety of basic issues, including its fee structure.

By JUDY SIEGEL
Recommendations by a public committee to raise postal rates "too high" are threatening to cause the "collapse" of the Israel Postal Company, workers' union head, Reuven Karazi, charged on Tuesday. Communications Minister Ariel Attias is due to decide soon whether to accept the recommendations, which the union head said would bring about "rigidity" in rates and make it "impossible for the Postal Company to compete" with private entrepreneurs. If rates are too high, the company will have fewer customers, services will suffer and many of its 7,000 employees will be dismissed, Karazi warned. He called on Attias to rethink the recommendations on rates, whose implementation, he said, would "decide the company's fate." The union said it was launching a "struggle to save" the company, which was established last year as a replacement to the Postal Authority. The new for-profit government postal company is being increasingly exposed to private competition, as its monopoly in various services is being gradually lifted. The Israel Postal Company is conducting discussions with the Communications Ministry on a "variety of basic issues, including its fee structure, company license and expansion of services" and management expressed its reservations about recommendations of the rate committee, the company statement said. "We have made clear the far-reaching implications if management's position is not adopted... We hope these efforts will succeed and that all will act to endure the existence of universal postal services to all that the company is obliged to provide."