Workers End Strike at Haifa

Workers at Israel's state-owned Haifa Port ended their strike on Tuesday, a day after they walked off the job in protest at a government plan to build private, competing ports.

A spokesman for the Chamber of Shipping said the port workers returned after Israel's labour court ruled that the parties must hold talks over their employment conditions.

Nearly all of Israel's exports and imports are transported by ship, making the port workers' unions among the most powerful in the country. Monday's stoppage caused disruption, with about 20 ships queuing to unload and a long line of trucks forming outside the port, waiting to transport goods.

Tensions have been high in recent years over government plans to open two privately run ports along the Mediterranean next to Ashdod in the south and Haifa.

On Sunday the Finance Ministry announced a three-year privatisation plan for state-owned companies that calls for selling off Ashdod port in 2015 and Haifa port in 2016.

Reporting by Tova Cohen