ZIM sale sparks maritime backlash: “Strategic assets must stay Israeli”
Unions warn the potential sale of the shipping company could jeopardize trained personnel and critical wartime supply routes.
The Naval Officers' Union has joined the ZIM Workers' Union in opposing the potential sale of ZIM to foreign buyers. The union is demanding that the state refuse to approve any deal that would transfer the company to non-Israeli ownership.
Calcalist has learned that the union, led by Captain Assaf Hadar, plans to take operative steps in the coming days to block such a sale, arguing that it would harm Israel’s strategic interests.
According to the union, transferring ZIM to foreign owners would endanger the future of the Israeli maritime sector. “If ZIM is not Israeli, the entire industry will cease to exist. ZIM is the only Israeli company that trains seafarers, and without it there will be no professionals to staff other fieldsת such as maritime pilots or even the Shipping Authority, most of whose employees come from ZIM,” Hadar told Calcalist after meeting with Oren Caspi, chairman of the ZIM Workers' Union.
Caspi initiated the public campaign last Wednesday, sending a letter to Transportation Minister Miri Regev urging the state to do everything possible to prevent ZIM from being sold to a foreign entity.
ZIM’s board of directors is currently conducting a sale process after CEO Eli Glickman submitted an offer to acquire the company together with Kia importer Rami Ungar. Other interested buyers include Danish shipping giant Maersk and German carrier Hapag-Lloyd, whose shareholders include Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Hadar said he and Caspi intend to meet in the coming days with the Israeli members of ZIM’s board (which also includes foreign directors) for what he called a “Zionism conversation,” aimed at stressing the risks of transferring the company to foreign hands.
“During the war, ZIM brought back to Israel hundreds of doctors who were stranded in Germany. It delivered food and medicine to the country. I’m not sure an Indian ship’s officer would agree to enter an Israeli port with missiles whistling overhead, as happened during the Swords of Iron war,” Hadar said.
The union represents hundreds of sailors and former naval officers.
