The Foreign Service Journal, June 2014

12 JUNE 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL A Tale of Two Strikes: “Warriors Abroad” O n April 2, Haaretz reported that the yearlong labor dispute by the Israeli Foreign Service was settled, after an unprecedented 10-day general strike closed the Foreign Ministry and all of Israel’s 103 embassies, consulates and missions abroad. Though the 1,200-strong Foreign Service had waged an effective Facebook campaign, “Save Israel’s Foreign Service,” the turning point came in early March when a seven-month mediation process led by the former Chief Justice of the Labor Court collapsed in the face of the Ministry of Finance’s intransigence. In early March the diplomats began implementing a series of measures that included such things as no longer engaging with foreign representatives, no longer taking care of official visits of and no longer issuing visas, all to “raise awareness, both domestically and inter- nationally, of the dire situation of Israel’s hard-working diplomats,” as the Foreign Service Workers’ Association put it in a March 3 statement. Representatives of the Histadrut (Israel’s organization of trade unions), the Foreign Ministry Workers’ Commit- tee and the Finance Ministry signed a memorandum of understanding that is the basis of a collective labor agreement. The pact gives the Israeli government “industrial peace” for several years, dur- ing which foreign ministry employees will be barred from going back on strike. The ministry will also be empowered to determine its emissaries’ second foreign postings according to its preferences, not just those of the emissaries. In return, the pact creates financial incentives for service at hardship posts and, for the first time, ensures that dip- lomatic salaries will be set by a transpar- TALKING POINTS ent process that takes into account the cost of living in foreign countries. The agreement also compensates dip- lomats for being on call and reimburses them for their children’s educational expenses, and shortens the time junior diplomats must serve before promotion. Finally, it upgrades the pensions of Israeli envoys and their partners, who will also receive job retraining and other compensation for damage to their careers caused by their relocation overseas. The Jerusalem Post quotes Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, who has hailed the settlement for creating “a new work model that provides for the professional needs of the For- eign Ministry, and an economic model that provides for the needs of the workers at all pay grades in the ministry.” For its part, the Foreign Ministry Workers’ Committee commented: “The uniqueness of the diplomats’ work is reflected in the [newly agreed] pay scales, which bring them a little closer to their colleagues in intelligence and the military, though a large gap remains that will have to be bridged in the future. We are pleased that the state of Israel under- stood the difficulties that its warriors abroad have to face, and we regret the unnecessary damage that has resulted. Tomorrow we will return to serving the country on the global front.” — Steven Alan Honley, Contributing Editor Strike Two: The Canadian Foreign Service A recent issue of Bout de Papier (Vol. 27, No. 4) features a fascinating interview with Tim Edwards, president of the Canadian Professional Associa- tion of Foreign Service Officers (AFSA’s equivalent). Much of Mr. Edwards’ “Post-Mortem,” reflecting on last year’s strike by Cana- dian diplomats, which the Journal cov- ered in its October edition, will resonat e loudly for many AFSA members. Here are some excerpts: Bout : In essence, what was this strike about? TE: At its core, this strike was about equal pay for equal work. We wanted to eliminate salary gaps of $3,000 to $14,000 between diplomats and other federal professionals doing the same or similar work in Ottawa, often in neighbor- ing offices. The latter include economists, lawyers, policy analysts and commerce officers. The gaps were most acute at the FS-2 level (the second step in our four-level ranking system), our largest cohort of members. They first appeared in 2005 and were exacerbated by the influx of hundreds of non-FS professionals into the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development over the last decade to com- pensate for chronic under-recruitment of Foreign Service officers. Bout: What was the point of no return in the negotiations that prompted the strike? TE: On Jan. 31, 2013, we conceded to the Treasury Board’s two key demands. We accepted annual increases of 1.5 per- cent per year—well beneath inflation and wage growth in the wider Canadian econ- omy—and the elimination of severance pay for a one-time salary boost of 0.75 per-