An ongoing secondary school teachers' wage strike entered its 12th day Tuesday, with no contact between the teachers' union and the government. Classes at the nation's universities are also suspended due to a three-day-old lecturers' strike.
Speaking during a press conference in Paris on Monday, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the strike "unjustified and unnecessary." He accused the Secondary School Teachers Association of hurting both students and teachers, adding that the teachers had been offered a "good deal." Olmert also criticized what he said were strongly exaggerated comments by teachers' union leader Ran Erez at a press conference Monday.
In his comments on Monday, Erez charged the Finance and Education ministries with adopting policies that will lead to the ruin of education in Israel. If the government convinces the Labor Court to force the teachers back to work, Erez threatened, he will turn to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to "prevent Israel from becoming a third-world country." He added that if the situation remains as it is, then the next strike will be staged by parents and not by teachers.
Reacting to the Prime Minister's comments in Paris, Erez said that Olmert displayed his own ignorance of the issue at stake. The fact that Prime Minister Olmert opposes the strike and supports the Finance Ministry's current offer is a sign that teachers must reject the offer and continue the strike, Erez concluded.
"A university-educated teacher with 20 years' experience today makes about 5,200 shekels a month," Erez said. "If we divide that salary by the number of hours that teacher works in practice, then we come to a wage that is less than that earned by a babysitter."
The government has offered the Secondary School Teachers' Association an additional six billion shekels for teachers' salaries, according to Lital Apter, media advisor to Education Minister Yuli Tamir. "Is that negligible in their eyes?" Apter asked.
Tafnit Joins the Fray
Tafnit party chairman Uzi Dayan, who appeared with union leaders at Monday's news conference, said that the teachers' struggle for better working conditions is just as important as the battles of the Second Lebanon War. He distanced himself from union leader Erez's threat to turn to the United Nations for help, but called on Prime Minister Olmert to back the teachers.
"Our children deserve better education," Dayan said.
The Tafnit party failed to win Knesset representation in the last general elections, but Dayan, a former senior IDF commander, has been working hard over the past year for grassroots support.
Recruiting Rabin to End the Strike
In what was received by some teachers as an attempt at political manipulation, Education Minister Tamir called on the Secondary School Teachers' Association to suspend their strike tomorrow in order to allow students to learn about the "Rabin legacy." The official state memorial day in honor of assassinated Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin falls on Wednesday.
The teachers' union rejected Tamir's effort to gain a reprieve from the strike.
University Lecturers Agree to Mediation
Finance Ministry Wage Desk Director Eli Cohen has agreed to a suggestion by Minister Tamir that an independent mediator be appointed to bridge gaps between the government and striking university lecturers. The academic lecturers shut down classes, which had been scheduled to begin on Sunday, in order to obtain a change in their salary structure.
However, representatives for the university lecturers' union said they have heard nothing about a mediator. "The egg was hatched before it was laid," a union spokesperson said.