Haifa Municipal Workers End Three-day Strike

HAIFA, Israel (AP) _ Municipal employees in this port city ended their three-day strike Friday after assurances they would receive their June wages, officials said.

The 5,000 employees of Israel’s third-largest city walked out Tuesday because City Hall, $37.5 million in debt, failed to pay June salaries.

Haifa was able to pay the workers after the Interior Ministry granted the municipality a four-year loan for $14.5 million, said city hall spokesman Yossi Bar.

During the three-day strike, garbage piled up on the streets. Striking workers also turned off some of the pumps that draw sewage water into a purification plant, sending a brown stream of raw sewage into the Mediterranean and onto beaches.