Intel offers non-Jewish Saturday workforce in Israel plant row
Compromise plan after ultra-Orthodox protest
Intel has offered to field an entirely non-Jewish Saturday workforce at its Jerusalem chip plant, after unruly demonstrations by ultra-Orthodox Jews there at the weekend.
The protest by ultra-Orthodox Jews, enraged by the company running the plant on the Jewish sabbath, prompted Intel to surround the factory with barbed wire. Journalists covering the demonstration were reportedly attacked.
According to Haaretz, Intel has now offered to only employ non-Jews at the plant on Saturdays. A total of 60 employees will work there, in three shifts, and "only conveyers producing the most sensitive components will operate on Saturday."
The paper adds that Intel will bear the cost of training the new non-Jewish workers, and would also recruit workers from the ultra-Orthodox community.
The proposal was made at a meeting chaired by the speaker of the Knesset, and ultra-Orthodox rabbis are expected to deliver a response soon.
The running of the plant on Saturdays has sparked high emotions. The ultra Orthodox community has an issue with the plant running on the Jewish day of rest. Non-Orthodox Jews argue that Intel could simply up sticks and move elsewhere, leaving Jerusalem ever more dependent on government, academic and tourism jobs. ®
COMMENTS
@EVERYONE
Hello again. Everyone who wanted proof for my claims - you'll get it during Friday, as right now I'm downloading today's and yesterday's Newscasts to extract the reports about this matter and upload them to my youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/MusicHunter85) in a few hours.
Peace and understanding
>Religion has been the major cause of wars over millenia.<
Heh, here's one, Apple are overpriced toys, Windows are spyware magnets, Linux is for beardy geeks with no life...
And go.
(point - we all suffer from the delusion that our beliefs are correct and anyone who doesn't agree must, in some way, be wrong, evil, misguided - whatever. The only reason we don't picket shops on a Sunday is because in the west we've been seduced by the dark side, have become soft and compliant and have little to no actual religious belief, we might spout the words, follow the rote, but any true belief is overshadowed by 'I'm a celebrity X factor'.
When you learn the Vatican loans money to known arms dealers you have to figure something's wrong, somewhere).
"Work on Saturday or be down-sized"?
The majority of comments here seem to be railing gainst the Nasty Religious Types, who are obviously saying no-one should be allowed to work on a Saturday, right? After all, they're Nasty Religious Types, and thus irrational by definition...
Except, according to yairmohr, the only poster so far who actually *lives there* (or at least the only one who seems to have mentioned the fact, sorry to any non-stated Jerusalem-ers), Intel actually said "you MUST work on Saturdays or lose your jobs".
Now, if the protest was against the plant being open on a Saturday at all, then I agree with the majority here, shame on the ultra-Orthodox for trying to force the thou-shalt-not-work-on-Saturdays rule on the workforce as a whole.
However, if the protest was against the threat of downsizing, then that in my opinion shifts the black hat well and truly onto IBM's head, and I'll re-phrase the above; shame on Intel for trying to force the Thou-SHALLT-work-on-saturdays rule on the populace workforce as a whole.
But either way - surely "only non-Jews may work on a Saturday" is not the way out of this problem, as it requires the hiring of a whole bunch of people *on religious grounds* ("Wanted: Saturdy workers. Jews, orthodox or otherwise, need not apply")
Surely "no-one will be forced to work on a Saturday if it's against their religion" ought to be an amicable sollution?
Fundamentalists Bah!!!
Religion has been the major cause of wars over millenia. Of course it is the fundamentalists doing. They are dangerous people.
@yairmohr
RE: but supporting the fight against a company that decided to enslave people 7 days a week (!!!) in the holy name of Capitalism
That's baloney, intel runs 4 shifts in their fabs in order to keep them open 7 days a week. Each shift works a 12 hour day, 3 days one week, 4 days the next. So the claim that people are forced to work 7 days a week is bull.
