Strike until 11:00 in kindergartens, primary, middle schools set for Tuesday
The Teachers' Union and government ministries have reached an apparent dead end in their salary negotiations. As a result, a warning strike has been announced; kindergartens and grades 1 – 9 will begin at 11:00; the union's sec. gen. says 'the government should be ashamed of itself'; Education and Finance ministries call the strike 'an aggressive decision.'
The Teachers' Union announced on Monday that it will be staging a warning strike, with kindergartens, elementary schools and middle schools to begin at 11:00 over growing concerns that several teachers and education professionals have yet to be paid in full.
While special education programs will continue as usual, the finance and education ministries have expressed their outrage over the decision.
Teachers' Union Sec. Gen. Yaffa Ben David and other representatives of the union met with Finance Ministry Sec. Gen. Shai Babad, Education Ministry Sec. Gen. Michal Cohen and other government officials to discuss salary conditions.
Specifically, Ben David demanded the cancellation of an expected retroactive cut made to teachers who were accidentally overpaid due to a conversion error. She also insisted that education professionals who had paid out of their own pocket for their transportation be reimbursed, in opposition to the planned cut in transportation reimbursement.
In the northern city of Kiryat Bialik, it was announced that all municipal kindergartens will be open as usual following the order of Mayor Eli Dokorsky. Most of the city's middle schools will also work as usual, since most of their teachers belong to the Teachers' Organization and not the Teachers' Union.
Ben David stated that "The Israeli government should be ashamed of itself that education professionals are not paid their salary in full. Harming the salaries of education professionals in the amounts of thousands of shekels due to a supposed error is unacceptable."
"The Education Ministry's accountants' claim of encountering a computing glitch is unacceptable. An education professional has just as much a right to receive their full salary and guarantee their dignified existence as any citizen who sends their children every day to school," added Ben David.
The Teachers' Union issued a statement, as well. "Thousands of education professionals have been severely hurt by the Education Ministry's deficient implementation of salary conversion under the "New Horizon" reform, as well as the deficient implementation of agreements between the Histadrut (general workers' union—ed)," the statement read.
It went on to say that the ministries "certainly should not reduce the education professionals' salaries or reimbursement for transportations expenses without first having a dialogue about this with the Teachers' Union."
Both the Finance and the Education ministries came out strongly against what they saw as Sec. Gen. Ben David's decision to strike in order to promote her own self interests. "This is an aggressive, arbitrary and rash decision," they said in a joint statement. "It is unfortunate to see students, parents, teachers and the system pay the price for her bid to (continue as) head of the Teachers' Union this May." The ministries added that "This is no way to build a work relationship based on trust and cooperation," and that they intended to use all the tools at their disposal in responding to the expected strike.
Teachers' Union Opposition Leader Gila Klein voiced her own criticism against Ben David's decision to strike, suggesting that it was merely a diversion from incidents of corruption involving the sec. gen. herself.
"The stand-in for the head of the Teachers' Union (Ben David is not in fact a stand-in, but had replaced long-time sec. gen. Yossi Wasserman, who resigned last month after facing his own corruption allegations—ed) is carrying out a populist strike as she attempts to postpone a discussion that would have her reveal her inflated paychecks and payments to a battery of attorneys that were covered with the salaries of teachers and kindergarten instructors. She is going on a populist strike but will not reveal the true fester in the house that for years she has taken part in building."
Parent Committee Forums Head Paz Cohen also expressed his disappointment with the move. "It's a real shame that the sec. gen. of the Teachers' Union has decided to begin her term in this manner. Even when the fight is completely justified and the state has acted criminally against the teachers, automatically going for a strike sends a very bad message to parents and students."
National Student and Youth Council Chairperson Hanan Yazdi also responded to the announced strike. "We view the teachers' fight for their pay as an important fight in which every move should be seriously weighed and seen as a top priority that the system as a whole must be committed to, so that no teacher will go hungry and will receive their salary on time and in full. That said, a strike is not the way achieve this. We call on the new sec. gen. to recant from her intent to strike and to sit with us and all the relevant parties to solve this painful problem that is pertinent to all teachers, and to reach understandings that would concern the education system as a whole."
