The Histadrut strives to help Palestinian and foreign workers.
Palestinian workers are among the most vulnerable and exploited workers in Israel. The Histadrut is committed to strengthening the relationship with the PGFTU and protecting and campaigning for the rights of the Palestinian workers employed in Israel.
The Histadrut provides legal consultation, holds vocational training that includes lectures in Arabic on workers' rights, collective agreements, health, and safety. The collective agreements are translated into Arabic and distributed to Palestinian workers.
As part of the collective agreement, grievance committees are convened and settle thousands of labor disputes per year.
In 2019 the Histadrut unionized approximately 5000 Palestinians, operated an Arabic language call center, and professionalized regional union officials to be better equipped to facilitate Palestinian workers' needs.
The Histadrut strives to help foreign workers and protect their rights. In this framework, the Histadrut provides legal consultation and convinces foreign workers to organize in the Histadrut, organized a campaign to target foreign workers in their local media (such as newspapers), and in the translated and published CBAs in the relevant sectors. Also, the Histadrut holds campaigns to promote foreign workers' rights in the field and lobbies in the government and different Knesset Committees to monitor and improve the legislation which dictates foreign workers' rights.
In 2019, the Histadrut signed bilateral agreements with the relevant affiliates of BWI to enable its counterparts in the origin country to inform the foreign workers about the rights and its activities and engagement to support them. The Histadrut signed a bilateral agreement with the construction trade union federation of Moldova on 25.3.19 and the construction trade union federation of Bulgaria on 23.10.19. The Histadrut is planning to sign agreements with the other construction trade union federations, including Romania, Ukraine, and Turkey.
