Gideon Golber, CEO of the Port of Eilat, announced that a large number of port workers will be laid off and work in the port will be completely halted due to the ongoing crisis in the Red Sea.

Golber added in an interview with the Hebrew newspaper “Maariv” today that the port of Eilat is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the activities carried out by the Houthis at sea since last November, noting that “all activities have stopped due to the inability of ships to reach the port, nor to pass towards… Europe via the Suez Canal, so the port stopped its activity as income stopped.’

Golber explained, ‘With the port reducing its operations, it faces huge expenses without revenues for 8 months,’ stressing that ‘this port depends on manpower, as 110 direct employees work in it, and there are from 40 to 100 other security employees, depending on the activity they carry out. There are also employees in and around the port, numbering between 250 and 300 people, who work indirectly.’

Golber confirms that ‘the sta
te does not help,’ as he told the newspaper: ‘We are not asking for money, but rather we are demanding that the port be allowed to operate. We would have preferred that the port workers leave for the collective bargaining agreement. The State of Israel will pay 70 percent of the salary in the collective bargaining agreement and this is how to preserve the workers…Unfortunately, we do not have such an agreement.”

In the absence of a governmental solution, the port of Eilat was forced to begin the process of mass layoffs of workers, as its executive director says: ‘We do not get answers from the Ministry of Finance, although the Ministry of Transportation is trying to help and support, but in the end, the money is with the treasury. We are forced to adjust the level of income to the level of expenses,’ according to what ‘Russia Today’ reported.

Source: National News Agency – Lebanon