I feel bad that potentially employees will need to be laid off in the process, but I do not think that making the consumer pay more money to protect the interests of El Al is the way to go. They will need to be creative in finding ways to be profitable.
Even now, they should really be more creative in finding ways to protest the decision. Striking now only reinforces in the public mind the necessity of the move. For far too long El Al has held the Israeli consumer by the short hairs, and striking now at this juncture just emphasizes that and reminds everyone of that. Few people are going to have mercy on El Al with this stark reminder that whenever they get upset about one thing or another they can shut down the country and inconvenience tens of thousands of people in an instant.
I also hope that people who are affected by the strike, loss of business due to inability to travel, loss of money spent on vacations, people who are in distressful situations - travelling for medical care or bereavement issues, will all sue El Al in some sort of class-action suit or something to punish them for this behavior...
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