The Israel Airports Authority (IAA) employees union declared a general strike at Israel's Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday.
Flights already in progress were to be allowed to land but passengers will not be able to collect their luggage. Moreover, there will be no further departures.
The strike was expected to interfere with the plans of over 29,000 passengers who were set to depart or arrive at the airport on Monday. Both incoming and outbound flights were to be affected. All airlines operating flights to Ben-Gurion airport have received notice of the strike.
On Saturday, IAA management, the general workers' union and the Histadrut labor federation, which represents organized labor in Israel, began negotiations. The first round of talks ended unsuccessfully on Sunday at the office of Yaakov Ganot, General Manager of the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety.
On Monday morning, another attempt to resolve the issue and prevent the strike proved unfruitful.
Last Tuesday intensive negotiations prevented a strike during the Rosh Hashanah holiday, which would have paralyzed flight transportation to Israel and would have affected over 100,000 travellers.
"Transport Ministry, Finance Ministry, airport officials and the union will work to try to find a solution to the workers' pension demands," Ben-Gurion airport spokeswoman said on Monday.