By IPS Correspondents
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, Mar 31 2003 (IPS)

Public sector workers in Israel launched an open-ended strike Monday to protest an economic austerity plan that would lower their salaries and could cut jobs.

About 100,000 local government employees joined about 50,000 national government staff who began partial work sanctions Sunday, reporting to work but not answering phones.

Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Histadrut trade union leader Amir Peretz were meeting Monday to try to resolve the dispute.

The unions are protesting the treasury’s economic emergency plan which includes a USD.2.34 billion budget cut. The cuts slash welfare and government salaries and call for public sector layoffs, measures intended to rescue an ailing economy hit hard by 30 months of conflict with the Palestinians.

The local government strike froze welfare services and garbage collection. The absence of parking inspectors snarled traffic in Jerusalem as motorists, realizing that no parking tickets would be handed out, left their cars in no-parking zones.

As garbage began to pile up, health officials asked the public to seal waste in closed bags before disposing of it. Huge mounds of garbage have piled up in previous strikes, sparking fears that Palestinian militants would try to hide explosive devices in the garbage heaps.

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