Meeting to prevent teachers' strike fails
Teachers in middle and high schools set to strike next week; minister of education and director of teachers' association met Friday morning to prevent strike but failed to reach compromise
Minister of Education Yuli Tamir and director of the Middle and High School Teachers' Association Ran Erez failed to reach an agreement to prevent the teachers' strike planned for next week during their meeting in Givatayim Friday morning. The differences between the two parties were too great.
The teachers' organization plans to hold a meeting Sunday to decide when the strike will begin and for how long it will last.
Erez is threatening to call a strike in middle and high schools in order to push for more rights and benefits for teachers in these schools. Teachers in these schools accuse the Finance Ministry of ignoring their requests dealing with wages, work conditions, and other issues unrelated to the budget.
Since 2001, the teachers had been working without an agreement on a collective salary because of a law that forbade negotiations between employers and professional organizations, the director of the association said. Since the expiration of that law in August 2005, the teachers' association has been trying to get the Finance Ministry to engage them in negations to no avail.
'Olmert must get involved'
Ehud Olmert, not Yuli Tamir, is the only person who can prevent this strike, Erez said in a conversation with Ynet. The director said that he has been trying to get the government's attention for more than a year and a half and there has not been any progress in negotiations.
"If Olmert doesn't get involved, we will strike until the government decides to invest in the future," Erez declared.
According to polls, parents will support the strike because they are aware of the problems such as increasing violence in the classroom, overcrowded classrooms, and short school days that affect the education system, the head of the teachers' association said.
Trouble is brewing on the university front as well. The University Heads' Committee is threatening not to open the institutes for higher education for classes this year.
In an announcement published by the committee, the directors called on high-ranking government officials to allocate $75 million, about a fourth of the amount money that has been cut from the universities' budget in the last few years, to post-secondary education.
