Employees of Arkia Israel Airlines are set to hold a large protest outside the company’s offices on Tuesday at 2:00 PM Israel time, amid growing fears that steps taken by the airline’s owners ahead of a planned sale will hurt their jobs and working conditions.

The protest follows a warning letter sent on Monday by the Transportation and Seaport Workers’ Union to Avi Hormaro, who represents the Nakash family, Arkia’s controlling owners, and to Arkia CEO Oz Berlowitz. The union warned that if the moves are not halted, it will begin taking measures against the owners and their representatives starting Tuesday.

In the letter, union deputy chairman Attorney Nir Eisenberg charged that the owners have recently been pushing efficiency and staff-cutting plans while diluting the employees’ holdings in the company. The union also claimed that outside consultants are being used to push the moves forward while bypassing the workers’ representatives.

The union further alleged that the owners are not putting enough capital into the company, and that the workers fear being made to pay the price for what the letter described as management failures. Eisenberg wrote that the employees will not accept any harm to their rights, their job security or their standing in the company.

The dispute erupted after workers learned at a board meeting on Sunday that the Nakash brothers, Joe, Ralph and Avi, intend to inject money into Arkia, which would shrink the employees’ share of the company. The brothers say the move is meant to help rehabilitate the airline, whose finances were hit hard by the war. Arkia has been up for sale for close to two years.

Avi Edri, chairman of the workers’ corporation that holds the employees’ shares, said management is working to dilute their stake down to zero. The board of Jordache, the Nakash family’s holding company, is expected to meet on Wednesday to announce the planned investment.

The union is demanding that the owners immediately halt the disputed moves, end the consultants’ work, cancel the share dilution and not move forward with any efficiency plan without reaching agreements with the workers. The union said it is prepared to sit down with the owners without preconditions if the moves are frozen.

While Tuesday’s protest is going ahead, the union has not yet declared a formal labor dispute, which is the legal step required before a strike. For now, Arkia’s flights are expected to operate as usual.

The Nakash Group responded that Arkia is a strategic asset for the State of Israel, its employees and the traveling public, and that it has instructed Berlowitz to immediately present a plan of action to stabilize the company. It added that it will continue to examine all options to keep the company and its operations going. Arkia declined to comment.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)