Eilat Port Shut Down, Hundreds of Workers Laid Off Amid Confrontation with Houthis

In an interview with the Hebrew newspaper Maariv on Sunday, Golber added that the port of Eilat is facing an unprecedented crisis due to the activities carried out by the Houthis at sea since last November, noting that “all activities have stopped due to the inability of ships to reach the port, or to pass to Europe through the Suez Canal. Therefore, the port has stopped its activity and with it the income.”

Golber explained that with the port reducing its operations, it is facing huge expenses without revenues for 8 months, stressing that this port depends on the workforce, as it employs 110 direct employees, and there are 40 to 100 other security employees depending on the activity they perform.

There are also 250 to 300 employees in and around the port, who work indirectly.

“The state is not helping,” Golber told the newspaper. “We are not asking for money, we are asking to let the port operate. We would have preferred that the port workers leave for a collective bargaining agreement. The State of Israel will pay 70 percent of the wages in the collective bargaining agreement and that is how we keep the workers. Unfortunately, we do not have such an agreement.”

In the absence of a government solution, the Eilat port was forced to begin mass layoffs. Its CEO says: “We are not getting answers from the Finance Ministry, although the Transportation Ministry is trying to help and support, but in the end the money is in the treasury. We are forced to adjust the income level to the expenditure level.”

The port of Eilat is an important economic gateway for Israel, but it is now in a critical situation. The main challenge facing the Israeli government now is to find a solution that will allow the port to resume its operations and retain its employees.

The attacks launched by the Houthi Ansar Allah group in the Red Sea, on ships passing through it and heading to the port of Eilat or the Suez Canal, in response to the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, caused a reduction in shipping traffic by 85% in the port, which is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Source: Maariv