Serious management failures caused Ben-Gurion Airport strike, says former IAA chief

Serious management failures and insufficient preparation for summer staffing shortages caused the recent strike at Ben-Gurion Airport, according to former Israel Airports Authority chairman Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eliezer "Chiney" Marom. He told 103FM that reaching the summer season without enough workers, leading to staff exhaustion and operational collapse, indicates a significant management problem.

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I don't want to point an accusing finger, but there is a management failure here. When you reach the summer without enough workers, and things deteriorate to the point where workers are collapsing from exhaustion, then there is a problem.

Marom highlighted that warnings from workers' committee chairman Pinchas Idan about the labor shortage were ignored. "There was a failure to prepare, and you can see it," he stated, adding that the situation worsened despite repeated alerts. He described the situation as "completely unacceptable," particularly noting that work stoppage occurred on one of the busiest travel days of the year, affecting tens of thousands of people.

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There is a major shortage of workers. It shows that preparations for the summer were inadequate.

Addressing the prolonged tenure of Idan as workers' committee chairman, Marom acknowledged that Idan is consistently re-elected. He raised the question of whether term limits, similar to those for a prime minister, should be considered. Regarding past employment practices, Marom explained that while nepotism was historically an issue at Ben-Gurion Airport, it has since been regulated, with the Civil Service Commissioner establishing percentages for hiring relatives. He stated that the Airports Authority now complies with these regulations, and the issue largely belongs to the past.

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There is a serious management problem here. There was a failure to prepare, and you can see it. There were warning after warning, and the situation kept getting worse and worse, but no preparations were made. This was not a surprise.