The chairman of the Airports Authority's employee committee, Pinchas Idan, gave an interview to Ayala Hasson on 'Kan News' - after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to expel him from the Likud following the chaos at Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday and Friday.
""I have never received anything from the Likud," Idan claimed. According to him, "it was the airport director who closed Ben Gurion Airport.".
When asked whether the situation would continue next week, he replied: "I'm not promising anything.".
Regarding the claims that he led the strike due to his position on the Airports Authority workers' committee, he said: "My position on the committee is not complicated - temporary workers vote like veterans.".
He explained: "What happened was that a team of porters who started at 3 a.m. had to work until 3 p.m. They asked to go home because they felt they were falling out of habits. I repeat, no, we shut down the field, everything is documented and everything is filmed.".
""I'm going to the court to issue an injunction that porters under an agreement cannot work 12 hours," he declared. "Is it safe for a porter to wake up at 2:00 in the morning, come to shift at 3:00 and work 12 hours? The average age is 40-50 after 20 and 30 years of work - the back already hurts.".
Idan also denied the publication that he sabotaged Minister Miri Regev's flight: "I loaded the minister's plane together with Major General Ron Tal. The porters are very, very busy these days - they work 12 hours and don't have time for a glass of water.".
After the chaos at the airport, Netanyahu decided to expel Idan from the Likud party - "following the wild and illegal strike at the airport that harmed the citizens of the country and caused damage to the economy.".
Netanyahu wrote yesterday in his petition to the party's court requesting to terminate his membership in the movement that the timing of the strike "shows that it was deliberate and intended to harm the Minister of Transportation, the Prime Minister, and the Likud movement.".
In a letter that Idan sent to Netanyahu and Transportation Minister Miri Regev, he claimed that there was no strike at Ben Gurion Airport. "The management chose to close counters and created an artificial crisis.".
