JERUSALEM, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Some labor stoppages that hint at the crippling nature of a threatened public sector strike were evident late Sunday in Israel as some fuel deliveries stopped.
The protest of the privatization and pension initiatives of Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to begin Monday although Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, visiting Moscow, has asked it to be put off until after his return in 48 hours, Haaretz reported.
The labor federation Histradut already turned down the same request from Netanyahu.
Histradut did offer to postpone the strike if the government's labor program is frozen for six months.
Netanyahu said such a broad strike would cause many workers to lose their jobs and that the real reason for the strike was not his initiatives but organized labor's effort to preserve its monopolies.
Meanwhile the National Labor Court was hearing two challenges to the strike Sunday night.
