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A veteran plant in the north lost the tender and is on the verge of closing;

Workers protest: "This is a war"

"Spatial Mafia" has been operating in Kiryat Shmona for 70 years and is considered a symbol in the city.

It lost the Ministry of Defense tender for supplies to soldiers, and this could lead to its closure.

Its employees demonstrated in front of Ganz's home and told of a place that was an island of stability in the Corona crisis.

"Dozens of families must not lose their source of livelihood"

Tags

• Kiryat Shmona

• Avichai Stern

• Factories

• Ministry of Defence

• Bnei Gantz

Eli Ashkenazi

Tuesday, 01 December 2020, 19:35

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In the video: "Spatial Mafia" workers from Kiryat Shmona demonstrate outside Ganz's home (Photo: The Histadrut

Dozens of employees of the old "regional mafia" mafia in Kiryat Shmona demonstrated this morning (Tuesday) near the house of Defense Minister Bnei Gantz.

The workers are protesting that the factory did not win a tender for the supply of bread for IDF soldiers - which could lead to the closure of the mafia. Yesterday the workers blocked the entrance road to Kiryat Shmona as part of the protests they began.

A regional mafia has been operating in Kiryat Shmona for about seventy years. And a significant part of its products is intended for the IDF.

Until three years ago, the bakery provided bakery products to IDF forces in the northern region, and after the terms of the tender changed, it began supplying the central and southern regions as well. Recently, a new tender was issued for bread supply to the IDF, and other bakeries were selected.

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"The mafia even worked in Katyushas and wars."

The demonstration in KS last night (Photo: The New Histadrut)

Zevik Zvigi, a mafia worker and resident of Kiryat Shmona, said the closure of the mafia is a disaster for 150 breadwinners, most of them from the city.

He is 51 years old, a father of three and a grandfather of three grandchildren.

According to him, the mafia is one of the industrial symbols in the city.

It has been operating since the 1950s and there is hardly a family in the city whose staff has not worked in the bakery.

"The Mafia has always worked, even in difficult times, even in Katyusha attacks and wars," Zweigi said. "Right now against the backdrop of the Corona period we were an island of employment stability, as an essential enterprise. The decision not to win the tender and its significance fell on us like thunder on a clear day. "Our competitors are lowering prices to the floor in order to break us and bring about our closure, but we will fight. We will bring paralysis of the state. The State of Israel has probably given up on us, but we have only just started a war."

The chairman of the Upper Galilee region in the Histadrut, Yona Partok, explained that the closure of the factory is part of a broader process of reducing jobs in the area.

This right was tender and another company won the tender and seemingly no problem, but should take into account the center of the country there are alternatives other employment Wow seems that the injury to employees a minimum, "said Partuk.

He added:" Unfortunately, in recent years, closed in Kiryat Shmona ten jobs large and small, such as Hero, Reels, Selex in Textiles - which employed more than 700 workers, as well as smaller factories that employed several dozen workers in the metal industry and marketing chains.

With all the advances in high-tech and food-tech development, most of the residents of Kiryat Shmona are still employed in low-tech and still the term "work bread" is usable and represents thousands of workers. "

The decision fell on us like thunder on a clear day.

Zavik Zvigi, at a demonstration yesterday in KS (Photo: Histadrut Hadasha)

The mayor of Kiryat Shmona, Avichai Stern, who participated in the demonstration this morning, said that the ministry should not allow the closure of the factory.

"The Spatial Bakery is one of the employment symbols in Kiryat Shmona and supports hundreds of families from Kiryat Shmona and the communities of the Eastern Galilee," he said.

He said, "Thousands of Katyusha rockets fired at the city in the past have never stopped the bread conveyors and the loyal work of spatial mafia workers, even under fire and without protection and all to take care of the soldiers fighting at the front. What thousands of Katyusha rockets have not done, the Ministry of Defense must not do."

"I will not give a hand in closing the spatial bakery! We must not go back to the 'working bread' period," the mayor added.

"The bakery must not close and hundreds of families will lose their source of livelihood. It is enough for us that thousands of families from the city and the region are in uncertainty due to the corona, so the hundreds of families who make a living from the regional bakery and are currently in economic uncertainty must not be included."

"The Spatial Bakery is one of the occupational symbols in Kiryat Shmona," Mayor Avichai Stern

The director of the bakery and the son of the bakery owners, Gilad Aharonson, 50 and a father of four from Kiryat Shmona, said: "A factory with 150 workers that has worked in the city for nearly 70 years is about to close because the Ministry of Defense has arbitrarily decided not to allow us to access the entire tender."

Aaronson argues that the decision, which he said was made for irrelevant reasons, would lead to a result that would be very difficult.

"The Ministry of Defense was not willing to allow us to bid in the tender as we have competed to date, and the landlord is not willing to continue to incur losses," he said.

"The ministry blocked us from winning almost half of the tender, and as a result the landlord was forced to close the factory. Defense Minister Bnei Gantz himself turned to prevent it, he did nothing. There is a lack of understanding of reality, 150 families in the city are going to lose their livelihoods. "I do not have to explain at all how difficult the situation here is today," he added.

Aaronson explains that they were denied access to the tender because they could not offer a cheap enough price, after the Berman bakery, based in Jerusalem, offered a particularly low price.

"Berman employs a lot of workers from East Jerusalem whose wages are low. Therefore, they can make a drastic drop in the price in order to win the tender, eliminate competition and then raise the price again."

"The Ministry of Defense also knows the trick of giving 'dumping' prices, in order to make competitors unable to meet supplies and eliminate competition, and they should have avoided that. In the first round they may have price reductions but in the next round there will no longer be competition."

Aaronson says that "the state should know that especially in such a period, help should be given and Israeli workers and the periphery should be preferred."

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The Ministry of Defense stated in response that "prior to the tender, which is required by law, there were several information talks, including clarifications to suppliers' questions. In the tender, 15% priority was given to establishments from national priority areas such as the establishment in question."

The Ministry of Defense added that "despite attempts made by law to assist the Mafia, the bid it submitted to the northern and central region was more than 15% higher than competing bids. The Ministry of Defense, as a government body, is required to conduct lawful tender proceedings."

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