Hundreds of high school teachers were out in force Thursday morning to protest what they maintain is government foot-dragging on coming to an agreement on wage hikes and working conditions. The nation-wide teachers strike enters its third week.
Students will join the teachers in opposing proposed reforms in the education system. The government wants to raise teachers' salaries, but also raise the number of work hours which will lead to widespread firings.
Demonstrations were held in the streets of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Ramat Gan (a suburb of Tel Aviv) and Be'er Sheva to protest "the government's refusal to hold reasonable negotiations."
Demonstrators said they plan to encircle the house of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with a motorcade.
Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On, who today is meeting American officials in Washington, called on the teachers to return to the negotiating table and end the strike.
Histadrut national labor union leader Ofir Eini sat down with high school teachers' union leader Ran Erez Wednesday in an effort to bridge the gap between the teachers and the government. Teachers who belong to the Histadrut are not on strike because they have a separate agreement with the government.
Most schools have been shut down and Erez refused to make an exception to the strike and open classes on the Memorial Day for former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, on which the Education Ministry requires that material focus on Rabin.
Several religious schools have been holding classes taught by Histadrut union teachers. Religious studies have continued uninterrupted in both the state-run and private religious school systems.
The teachers are threatening to make their walkout permanent if the government does not meet their demands, according to a report on IDF Army Radio.
The Secondary School Teachers' Association dropped its wage hike demands from 20 percent to 15 percent and offered to increase educators' time by three hours a week for special smaller enrichment classes.
"A university-educated teacher with 20 years' experience today makes about 5,200 shekels a month," union head Ran Erez said last week. "If we divide that salary by the number of hours that a teacher works in practice, then we come to a wage that is less than that earned by a babysitter."
Education Minister Yuli Tamir explained that the offer was an incremental raise to last during a five-month negotiating period regarding the implementation of the reforms and pay-increases that Erez himself had proposed. The new reforms are intended to increase Israeli students’ sagging grades and increase the stature of the teaching profession in Israel.
“It must be noted that the government has just allotted an additional 6 billion shekels to the previous total of 18 billion shekels toward education,” Tamir said. “This is substantial and Erez’s claim that it amounts to only 50 shekels per teacher is misleading. The raises must be implemented together with the reforms, but he is demanding that the reforms be left for later.”
Almost half a million students are without classes as a result of the strike. English-speaking teachers, parents and children who are affected by the walkout can trade information on a new open forum posted on the internet at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/israelschoolstrike .