'Right to choose.' Erez
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Minister Tamir
Photo: Muki Schwartz
Teachers' Association threatens strike over reform plan
Chairman Ran Erez says Education Ministry trying to impose plan's wage, employment clauses without Association's consent
The Middle and High School Teachers' Association declared a labor dispute on Sunday and has threatened to launch a strike within the next two weeks over the Education Ministry's reform plan, dubbed "New Horizon."
According to Ran Erez, chairman of the Teacher's Association, the Ministry is trying to impose the reform on 700 of its members, despite the fact that it was only the Israel Teachers Union that had agreed to it.
A statement issued by the Association read: "As of August 2008, members of the Association are being employed without a collective agreement. Our attempts to negotiate with the Treasury and Education Ministry were rejected.
"The Education Ministry is making every effort to impose on the Association's members the wage and employment terms as determined by the reform plan without the Association's consent," the statement said.
Erez added that "we would expect Education Minister Yuli Tamir, a member of a social-democrat party (referring to Labor), not to infringe on our right to choose. We will launch a strike unless our teachers are exempt from the reform's conditions.
Minister Tamir said recently that Erez has been "extorting and threatening the educational system for years.
"He has played a big part in some of the failures that the system has had to deal with, but now we are putting a stop to this," she said.
