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Histadrut
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The Histadrut ("Federation" [of labour]) or HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael (lit. "General Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel") is the Israeli trade union congress.
It was founded in December 1920 in Haifa as a Jewish trade union which would also provide services for members such as an employment exchange, sick pay, and consumer benefits. Its initial goals were to provide a federation for all Jewish workers in the British Mandate of Palestine, promote land settlement, promote workers' rights against management and to promote Jewish employment despite the lower wages paid to Arabs.
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Encyclopedia
The Histadrut ("Federation" [of labour]) or HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B'Eretz Yisrael (lit. "General Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel") is the Israeli trade union congress.
It was founded in December 1920 in Haifa as a Jewish trade union which would also provide services for members such as an employment exchange, sick pay, and consumer benefits. Its initial goals were to provide a federation for all Jewish workers in the British Mandate of Palestine, promote land settlement, promote workers' rights against management and to promote Jewish employment despite the lower wages paid to Arabs. The Histadrut had approximately 4,400 members in 1920 and grew to 8,394 members in 1922 or just over half of the Jewish working class. By 1927 the body claimed 25,000 members or 75% of the Jewish workforce in Mandatory Palestine.
The Histradrut became one of the most powerful institutions in the state of Israel, a mainstay of the Labour Zionist movement and, aside from being a trade union, its state-building role made it the owner of a number of businesses and factories and, for a time, the largest employer in the country.
Through its economic arm, Hevrat HaOvdim ("Society of Workers"), the Histadrut owned and operated a number of enterprises, including the country's largest industrial conglomerates as well as the country's largest bank, Bank HaPoalim. The Histadrut also provided a comprehensive health care system (see Clalit).
Its membership in 1983 was 1,600,000 (including dependants), accounting for more than one-third of the total population of Israel and about 85 percent of all wage earners. About 170,000 Histadrut members were Arabs (who were admitted to membership starting in 1959). In 1989, the Histadrut was the employer of approximately 280,000 workers.
With the increasing liberalisation of the Israeli economy since the 1980s, the role and size of Histradrut has declined though it still remains a powerful force in Israeli society and the nation's economy.
The Histadrut during the Mandate
Until 1920 the two main labor parties of the Second Aliyah (1904–1914), Ahdut HaAvoda and Hapoel Hatzair, had been unable to set up a unified workers organisation. Ahdut HaAvoda was a "moderately socialist" labor party, while Hapoel Hatzair was a non-socialist labor party. Both parties were primarily nationalist parties. In 1920 Third Aliyah (1919–1923) immigrants founded the Labor Legion (Gdud HaAvoda) and demanded a unified organisation for all workers. According to Tzahor this forced the issue for the old parties, upon which the Histadrut was founded in December 1920. Despite the participation of the new immigrants the Second Aliyah leaders also became the leaders of the Histadrut. According to Tzahor the Second Aliyah leaders were afraid the Third Aliyah immigrants wanted to emulate the Bolshevik revolution, while their own experience had taught them to preserve a balance between grand aspirations and realistic possibilities, and that it was better to focus on constructive action.
Histadrut membership | year | members | percent of Jewish workforce |
|---|
| 1920 | 4,415 | ... | | 1923 | 8,394 | 45 | | 1927 | 22,538 | 68 | | 1933 | 35,389 | 75 | | 1939 | 100,000 | 75 | | 1947 | 176,000 | ... |
The initial aim of the Histadrut was to take responsibility for all spheres of activity of the workers movement: settlement, defense, trade unions, education, housing construction, health, banking, cooperative ventures, welfare and even culture. The Histadrut took over economic firms operated by the parties, which operated by subcontracting, and their Office of Information, which was expanded into a Labor Exchange. Already after a few months the Histadrut became the single largest employer in the Yishuv. The Histadrut succeeded in improving worker's rights as e.g. the right to strike was recognised, employers had to motivate dismissal and workers got a place to turn to with their complaints.
In the first year of its existence the Histadrut lacked central leadership, and many initiatives were taken at the local level. This changed after David Ben-Gurion became appointed in the General Secretariat. Ben-Gurion wanted to transform the Histadrut into a national instrument for the realisation of Zionism. According to Zeev Sternhell Ben-Gurion's exclusive commitment to this goal is illustrated by a December 1922 quote:
[...] Our central problem is immigration ... and not adapting our lives to this or that doctrine. [...] How can we run our Zionist movement in such a way that [... we] will be able to carry out the conquest of the land by the Jewish worker, and which will find the resources to organise the massive immigration and settlement of workers through their own capabilities? The creation of a new Zionist movement, a Zionist movement of workers, is the first prerequisite for the fulfillment of Zionism. [...] Without [such] a new Zionist movement that is entirely at our disposal, there is no future or hope for our activities
Ben-Gurion transformed the Histadrut in a few months. He set up a well-defined hierarchy and reduced the competencies of local workers' councils. He also centralised the collection of membership dues, most of which were formerly used up by local branches.
Absorption of immigration was seen as a very important task of the Histadrut. Providing immigrants with work was often seen as more important than the financial soundness of its operations. The labor leaders saw failure to absorb immigrants as a moral bankruptcy that was much worse than financial bankruptcy. In 1924 the Histadrut's Office for Public Works collapsed and went bankrupt, and in 1927 the same happened to its successor, the privatised Sollel Boneh. In both cases the Zionist Executive bailed them out and recognised the deficit in the category of "expenses for immigration absorption". The Zionist Executive, sharing the goal of stimulating immigration with the Histadrut, had to do this because beside the Histadrut there was no other organisation in Palestine with the ability to absorb immigrants.
By 1930 the Histadrut had become the central organisation of the Yishuv. It did what the Zionist Executive wanted, but was unable to do: absorb immigrants and organise agricultural settlement, defense and expansion into new areas of production. According to Tzahor the Histadrut had become "the executive arm of the Zionist movement - but an arm acting on its own". It had become a "state in the making".
According to Tzahor, while the Histadrut focussed on constructive action, its leaders did not "abandon fundamental ideological principles". However according to Ze'ev Sternhell in his book The Founding Myths of Israel, the labor leaders had already abandoned socialist principles by 1920 and only used them as "mobilizing myths".
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