British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume II - Page 764

CHAPTER XVII.

60. It is not possible to measure to what extent the growth of Arab trade unionism has been promoted by the establishment of the Government Department of Labour in 1942. It has been one of the functions of the Department, in accordance with current colonial policy, to assist the development of the Arab unions and advise them in their activities. Many difficulties hampering the establishment of Arab trade unions have been removed, and they now show a confidence which formerly was apparently wanting. Nevertheless, other factors have been operative, such as the rapid expansion of industry under war conditions, the rise in living costs and, perhaps to some extent, the influence and example of the Histadruth.

61. Arab trade unionism is not new. The Palestine Arab Workers Society, the one body with a relatively close-knit organisation, was founded as long ago as 1925. It has had a continuous existence since that time. The fortunes of the Society fluctuated considerably, but from the summer of 1942 steady progress was shown. The membership and number of affiliated societies steadily increased, the society being established on a geographical basis, town by town. At the Nablus conference on 5th August, HJ45, which will be further mentioned below, 17 societies were represented. That total paid up membership at that date may be conservatively estimated as having reached a figure 15,000.

62. The Palestine Arab Workers Society was also the first Arab labour organization to engage in economic activities-if we exclude the Nablus Arab Labour Society, which is not a labour organization in an ordinary sense of the term, but rather an association of cooperatives. The Palestine Arab Workers Society itself controls a number of small registered cooperative societies, both consumers' and producers', and operates a savings and loans society and an employment exchange. Most of these enterprises are located in Haifa where are also the head offices of the Society.

63. A split, however, occurred in the ranks of the Society following the Nablus conference of 5th August, 1945, the causes of which relate back to the autumn of 1942, when a rival body called the Federation of Arab Trade Unions and Labour Societies was founded in Haifa. It succeeded in establishing a number of unions in individual large undertakings, and took special care in organizing skilled workers. The membership was never large and remained stable at a figure approaching 2,000. Latterly, the membership has declined, as the declared policy of the Federation has been "to seek absorption in the Palestine Arab Workers

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