“I think it’s just going to get worse,” Michael Berlin, 51, of Arad said. Married and the father of a 26-year-old, he recently lost his job in the Flextronics factory, one of many layoffs in recent weeks.
“You can’t get anywhere from Arad,” Berlin said of the southern city. He is the most recent to join thousands of Israelis from the south who have experienced layoffs. And thousands more are expected to join them: Negev Textile in Sderot and Rotem Amfert in Beersheba has already begun layoffs, and workers union of Israel Chemicals Ltd. are setting up to battle thousands of workers to be dismissed in what is being dubbed an ‘effect improving’ processes.
The Flextronics factory, where Berlin worked as an engineer, fired 50 of its workers in recent weeks. Berlin started working there 21 years ago, and since he’s been laid off, he sits at home doing nothing. “I’m still shocked,” he said. “It feels like the factory is going to close, and even those who are working right now are working temporarily.”
Berlin said there are significant difficulties finding work in his field. “The odds are small to find work as an engineer,” he said, “I don’t have any hope that it’ll get better.”
In Rotem Amfert, some 130 workers are to be laid off. Management says their effect improvement plan will include wage cuts and willful resignations. Chairman of the worker’s union, Moshe Hadad, said that workers are “extremely upset. The company always said it workers are its most valued asset.”
“They’re trying to change orders now,” Hadad said, “they want to fire workers with tenure who are getting paid well and bring on young workers on minimum wages. We won’t have that.”
Four Israel Chemicals Ltd. workers have been trying to battle the cloud hanging over their head by striking. “There is an ill spirit to all of this,” said chairman of the worker’s union in the Periclase factory, which is also facing significant layoffs. “Workers have a lot of concerns. Management wants to create more effective orders everywhere, so wage cuts and layoffs are naturally to follow.”
‘I was shocked’
Laid off workers in the north are trying to reorganize their lives, as well. Roni Malka, 24, worked for Office Depot for two years before she received the note saying the company was closing. She pays for her own education as a graphic designer and photographer. “I don’t know what will happen now,” she said. “I’m very concerned.”
Roni was initially moved to a different branch, and then found out the whole company went bankrupt. “I was just shocked,” she said, “I knew things were bad but we didn’t believe a company like that, an international company, could be closed.
“I worked there for two years, two good years with good people. It was fun to wake up and go work there in the morning.”
Another former Office Depot employee, also a student, chose the work especially since it supported his mechanical engineering studies. He said he heard the company was closing on the news, and no one officially informed him, until now.
“We got less and less shifts, and less and less people in each shift, and less and less merchandise to sell. It’s a shame about the people and the company itself,” he said, “I’ll have trouble finding new work now. All jobs require at least three shifts a week.”
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