The Nationalization of the Labor Bureaus from the Perspective of State Building

David Ben-Gurion, the Prime Minister of the young State of Israel, viewed the regularization of employment as an important social service and a cornerstone in the shaping of Israeli statehood. Labor bureaus were originally established as separate party offices, which were eventually unified into general offices at the end of the 1930s under the ‘General Labor Bureaus Law,’ which formalized the agreements reached among the various parties. The labor bureaus were therefore parity-based partisan bodies in which the General Federation of Labor of Hebrew Workers in Israel held a dominant position. Upon the establishment of the state, Mapai, after some deliberation, decided to keep them in their existing format. This created structural problems of governmental underfunding and political meddling in the bureaus’ administration and councils, some of which included representatives from parties opposed to Mapai. The bureaus demonstrated considerable independence within the Histadrut and posed a challenge to its leadership on issues such as wages. In July 1956, in a policy speech given at the Eighth Histadrut Convention, Ben-Gurion declared that the state's national duty was to ensure fair job distribution by establishing a government labor bureau, in cooperation with workers and employers. His statement, which was aligned with the thinking of senior Histadrut members from Mapai and was likely coordinated with them, was adopted by the Histadrut Council in December 1956. Following the council’s approval of Ben-Gurion’s declaration, the Histadrut, led by Pinchas Lavon, urged Mapai members in the government and the Knesset to expedite the necessary legislation for the establishment of a government labor bureau. They repeatedly lobbied Ben-Gurion and the responsible ministers until the legislative process was completed at the beginning of 1959. In this article, I will demonstrate Ben-Gurion’s central role in leading the nationalization process, thus harnessing Mapai and the Histadrut to the process of state building