Concluding Remarks to Part 3

Chapter 15 summarizes the chapters which addressed the third sphere, the relationship of labor to the political community. It reiterates that since Israel was established, the labor market’s borders have become ever more porous, while the borders of the national (Jewish) political community have remained firm: the Jewish nationalism which guides government policy is as strong as ever. NGOs, drawing on a discourse of human rights, are able to assist some non-citizens but this discourse also resonates with the idea of individual responsibility: the State is no longer willing to support “non-productive” populations, who are now being shoehorned into a labor market which offers few opportunities for meaningful employment, and is saturated by cheaper labor intentionally imported by the State in response to powerful employer lobbies. These trends suggest a partial reorientation of organized labor’s “battlefront”, from a face-off with capital to an appeal to the public and state.

Pluralism and the Changing Nature of Politics

Placing the developments previously discussed in a wider context, Chapter 12 explores the individualization of politics and the juridification of labor law, as well as the contingent and unstable link that new representative organizations have with political decision-making forums. The chapter reviews research into the transformation of politics, including the turn away from political (democratic) institutions in general and towards a reliance on “expert” institutions, and suggests that these connected processes – the NGO-ization of worker representation and the disintegration of the party-union link – reflect the breakdown of a core premise of neocorporatism: that being a worker was congruent with being a citizen. The union could once count on the labor party to fight its corner in the political sphere because the union’s members were also members of the political community, but now the political community is no longer congruent with the “worker community” – the labor force.

The Institutional Struggle

Chapter 9 continues the investigation into the labor-capital balance of power, addressing the third of the three planes of struggle, that of institutional struggle. Focusing on the labor courts in a historical context, the chapter asserts that the courts are on the defensive, accused of being too “biased” in labor’s favor, as too “ideological” in contrast to the Finance Ministry’s “objective expertise”. It argues that attempts to limit the labor courts’ power act de facto to undermine collective labor relations. The labor courts, then, are on the front line of attempts to undermine organized labor by weakening the institutions and frameworks within which it operates.

The Frontal Struggle

Chapter 7, which addresses the labor-capital balance of power, conceptualizes three planes of labor struggle, anchored in concepts of union power: the “frontal struggle” of organizing drives, unionization and collective action; the “ideological struggle” in which organized labor defends its legitimacy and the legitimacy of collective labor relations; and the “institutional struggle” over the institutions and formalized frameworks that facilitate collective labor relations. The chapter then explores the first plane with an analysis of unionizing at Pelephone, which encountered extreme opposition from the employer and led to a groundbreaking ruling from National Labor Court determining what an employer may and may not do in opposition to an organizing drive. However, noting other employers’ continued opposition to labor organizing and their ability to ignore the spirit of the ruling, the chapter suggests that the frontal struggle is easily undermined if it has no general public support on the level of ideology.

Concluding Remarks to Part 1

Chapter 6 summarizes the chapters which addressed the first sphere, union democracy or the relationship between workers and their representative organization. Noting the confused picture created by the in-depth analysis of recent labor campaigns, the chapter emphasizes a common desire to act: workers are drawing on various resources including what remains of the old structures to make their voices heard and influence their trade union and workplace – and possibly beyond their workplace too. This bears the signs of union revitalization but the chapter asserts that recent labor campaigns should be seen more broadly as the renegotiation of union democracy and the emergence of a kind of activism among workers that had never existed in the context of a Histadrut-dominated neocorporatism – an activism which, in a break with most of Israel’s labor history, has grown from the bottom up.

The Corrupt Old Structures

Chapter 3 continues the empirically-rich analysis of recent labor campaigns and organizations, particularly the new journalists’ union, the railway workers and the Israeli Medical Association, to discuss the way workers perceive existing representative organizations and negotiate levels of autonomy. The chapter asserts that as workers consider various frameworks to channel grassroots activism, they have been compelled to cope with the contradictions and dilemmas which stem from perceptions of Histadrut corruption. Koach Laovdim, which nurtures its democratic credentials, has been the main beneficiary. In addition, the chapter suggests that the doctors’ strike, while apparently successful, also reflects the fragmentation of representation and the decline of the union’s legitimacy.

Neoliberalism, Neocorporatism, and Worker Representation

Chapter 1 lays out the book’s theoretical framework. Accepting the claim that Israel is a neoliberalizing society, it asserts labor’s agency and its potential to thwart neoliberalism as part of a struggle taking place on the ideological or symbolic level too. It then proposes neocorporatism as a useful conceptual approach, and links this to union revitalization and concepts of power. These theoretical terms and concepts are used to anchor the three “spheres” of union activity which structure the book: union democracy, or workers’ relationship to their representative organization; the balance of power between labor and capital, and the way the potential clash of interests between them is viewed and played out; and the relationship of labor to the political establishment and wider political community. Finally, a short coda explains the research process and approach that led to the book.