At least 400,000 students have been out of school for over seven weeks, but that number could easily double on Sunday if the Secondary School Teachers' Association (SSTA) makes good on its threat to shut down the entire school system.
The National Teachers Union, which includes teachers in the elementary schools, threatens to shut down every class in the country next week, except for special education classes, in light of another round of failed talks between the SSTA and the government. Negotiations broke up at 5 a.m. Friday with no agreement - and with the threat of back-to-work orders to be issued on Saturday night.
The Labor Party faction in the Knesset - a member of the government coalition - issued a statement on Friday demanding that Prime Minister Olmert intervene in the negotiations with the teachers. Olmert has ignored such calls in the past. Labor also demands that the Cabinet discuss the education crisis in its weekly meeting this Sunday.
SSTA Chairman Ran Erez, Education Minister Yuli Tamir and Finance Minister Roni Bar-On were all present in the National Labor Court on Thursday for a stormy three-hour session that ended, yet again, with no progress made.
Teachers Protest
Police clashed with union members Thursday night as the teachers demonstrated outside the court. One teacher was arrested. Erez went outside upon hearing of the clashes and slammed the government representatives when he returned. "You should be ashamed," he said. "If Israel's teachers have come to this, it is thanks to the Finance Ministry and the Education Ministry, and this will come back at you like a boomerang."
Representatives from all sides have been in and out of court for the past week. The government has asked the court to force the teachers back to work, while the teachers threaten to quit altogether if the court issues the order.
Longest Strike Ever
The strike is already the longest teachers' strike in the country's history, and the Finance Ministry says the damage caused to high school seniors is irreversible. The university lecturers' strike, which began a week after the high schools strike, also appears to be unending, and the autumn semester is in danger of being canceled altogether.
The teachers' union has been struggling to reach an agreement with the government on a wage hike and improved teaching conditions since the beginning of the school year, without success. Talks between the union and representatives of the Education and Finance Ministries have broken down repeatedly, even with the participation of Ofer Eini, head of the Histadrut national labor federation, as mediator.
The teachers' union has dropped its demands for an immediate wage hike of 20 percent, whichi it later lowered to 15 and then 13.5 percent. The government at first offered a 5 percent raise in gradual increments over a period of months, and later raised the offer to 8.5 percent - on condition that a proposed across-the-board educational reform is implemented; this issue is also in dispute.
Demonstrations and protests supporting the union's position have continued throughout the country, including a mass demonstration last week by some 100,000 protestors who gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to express their disgust at the forced idleness of youths across the country.