Israeli Customs employees called a strike starting Monday, 14TH December, which had resulted in no import or export clearances being carried out.
This includes all Customs authorities at Ben Gurion International airport and Ashdod and Haifa sea ports. On Tuesday Customs employees escalated the sanctions and many shipments were delayed or completely stuck. Though no official announcement has been made, they were expected to escalate their actions until the dispute is resolved.
Exporters could not ship goods and importers failed to take out their imported goods. The Manufacturers Association of Israel and the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce warned of "major and irreversible damage" if the strike continued, and asked the Jerusalem Labor Court to intervene to end the strike, in a joint petition.
A survey carried out by the Federation found that the strike had already caused "significant delays in imports and exports, as well as the release of stock in ports and border crossings."
The strike caused over US$350 million in damages. On Thursday sanctions were suspended by the Jerusalem Labor Court, through to January 1, 2015. The move to suspend the strike action came following a meeting between the Histadrut (national labor federation) and the employees and the Ministry of Finance where they agreed to renew the negotiations at that time.
