High schools teachers to hold second day-long strike Tuesday
Union protests refusal to implement pay raises immediately; Finance Ministry says union head setting unacceptable preconditions for talks
Israeli high schools will be closed Tuesday, as teachers announced a second one-day strike demanding higher salaries. This will be the second strike in two weeks, following last Sunday’s industrial action.
Ran Erez, head of the Union of Secondary School Teachers, announced the action and posted a partial list of his group’s demands on Facebook on Monday.
He said the union wants an immediate monthly gross wage increase for starting teachers, from NIS 6,400 ($1,820) to NIS 8,000 ($2,275), along with a comparable raise for teachers with up to seven years experience. In addition, the union said that teachers who have been teaching for eight years or more must receive an extra NIS 600 ($170) a month.
Erez said some of the other demands would not cost the Finance Ministry anything, but would improve work conditions for teachers.
Erez said talks with the ministry broke down after it agreed to the wage hike but only on condition it be phased in over the next four years. Since the ministry was not prepared to approve the increase immediately, he said, there was no point in further negotiations and no alternative but to strike.
The Finance Ministry criticized the union for taking “aggressive measures.”
“It is a pity that instead of trying to reach a compromise by conducting substantive negotiations, the organization chooses to take aggressive measures to the point of disrupting the high schools,” a ministry spokesperson said.
He added that the ministry was ready to hold talks with the union leaders on Monday afternoon, but said Erez and his team refused to show up.
“Unfortunately, the head of the teachers’ union chose not to take part in the meeting, and instead informed the attendees that if his prior demands were not agreed to before negotiations he would not return to the negotiating table,” the ministry said.
“Even though negotiations have been ongoing on for many months, and after several proposals have been made to conclude the negotiation, the teachers’ union has chosen to set preconditions for budget increases that are intended to benefit veteran teachers at the expense of the new teachers,” the ministry spokesman said.