The Independent Trade Union Centre WAC MAAN held its 17th AGM on June 10 in Tel Aviv. Notable among those present were workers organized by WAC, including representatives of Palestinians employed in the Zarfati garage and the Hayei Adam carpentry in Mishor Adumim, representatives of teachers at Musrara College and the Rosh Ha’ayin Music Center, and a representative of a new organizing drive of teachers and workers at the NGO Hand in Hand (bilingual schools) who have recently joined WAC. Staff from WAC’s offices in Jerusalem and Baqa al-Gharabiyeh also attended, as did activists in the various fields in which WAC is active such as the Women in Work project and the struggle against work accidents in construction.
Erez Wagner – East Jerusalem Organizer for WAC MAAN
The event was a call to Arab and Jewish workers, including Palestinian workers employed in Israel and the settlement areas of the West Bank (Area C), to join WAC as the only union in Israel open to all workers without regard to nationality, religion, ethnicity or gender, and the only union to take a clear stand against the occupation and in favor of full equality between Israelis and Palestinians. WAC offers an alternative to the disconnection between Arabs and Jews and between Israelis and Palestinians, WAC MAAN remains a platform of equality and progressive social agenda that stands firmly in opposition to the situation where one side closes itself off behind racist Zionist nationalism and the other behind religious Islamic nationalism, both of which lead only to disaster for their nations.
The AGM began with a comprehensive report on the organization’s activities from WAC Secretary General Assaf Adiv. “When you join WAC you are assuring yourselves of power that will support and assist you in securing your rights from your employer, but you are also participating in building a social movement that leads the struggle against social and political ills, that will fight racism and the occupation. In this way you become partners in creating a common future for the two nations in this country.”
Yossi Mar Haim, WAC activist and worker committee member at Musrara College, was among the speakers, along with the Zarfati garage committee chair Hatem Abu Ziadeh, the director of WAC’s East Jerusalem office Erez Wagner, and Wafa Tiara, Women in Work project coordinator at WAC’s Baqa al-Gharabiyyeh branch. Then WAC board member Tzipora Friedman presented the financial report; and Auditing Committee Chair Orit Soudry presented the auditing committee’s report. The two reports as well as the report presented by Assaf Adiv were adopted by the representatives in a vote which ended the debates.
To finish, the AGM voted for members of the board Asma Agbarieh-Zahalka, Guy Aloni, Muna Abu Asba, Ido Mahal, Yossi Mar Haim and Tzipora Friedman, headed by Hanan Manadra Zuabi. The participants also approved the members of WAC’s national committee, which directs the unionizing activities, headed by Assaf Adiv and including Erez Wagner, Wafa Tiara and Yoav Tamir.
Translation – Yonatan Preminger
