* Union wants government to hire workers, improve conditions

* Sides to report on progress in talks to labour court

JERUSALEM Feb 12 (Reuters) – A public sector strike
that has sapped Israel’s economy entered its fifth day on
Sunday, but ports were open for the first time in a possible
sign of a breakthrough to end the labour action.

Israel’s banks, stock market and government offices remained
closed. Commuters faced disruptions in public transportation and
trash bins overflowed as bus drivers and municipality workers
pushed on with their protest.

“I’m sorry that the public is suffering, but our aim is a
noble one,” Ofer Eini, chairman of the Histadrut labour
federation, said late on Saturday during marathon negotiations
with the Finance Ministry.

Histadrut, an umbrella organisation for hundreds of
thousands of public sector workers, declared the strike on
Wednesday.

It is demanding that the government hire 250,000 contract
workers, such as cleaners and security guards, whose conditions
are inferior to those directly on government payrolls.

The Finance Ministry has said it cannot take on so many new
workers but has offered to improve working conditions and
significanly increase salaries.

Both sides have had to report on how the negotiations are
going to a labour court, which has intervened to prevent such
strikes in the past.

A Histadrut official said Israel’s ports were open for the
first time since the strike began and the flight schedule at Ben
Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, which had closed
periodically last week, showed no delays.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Michael Roddy)