Histadrut

Histadrut (General Federation of Labour, Israel) A trade union established in Haifa in 1920 in order to organize workers in their quest for better pay and working conditions. It became the most important Jewish grass-roots movement, and provided invaluable support for Mapai and the Jewish Agency. In the absence of a Jewish state, it assumed widespread responsibilities for its members' health care and protection against poverty, while it provided crucial economic services such as banking, the marketing of members' products, etc. It maintained many of these functions after the creation of the state of Israel, in which it assumed a position of overwhelming economic importance, thanks to its alliance with Mapai and the Labour Party, which dominated Israeli politics until 1977. As a result, it became Israel's biggest employer, owning the country's largest bank and its largest health insurance fund. Partly as a result of the more hostile policies of the Likud governments during the 1980s, and partly as a result of changes affecting trade unions throughout the world (e.g. the globalization and rationalization of business), its importance in Israel's society and economy has begun to shrink quite rapidly.