High school teachers’ strike could continue for months – union head

The high school teachers’ strike that began on Sunday could continue until after the Jewish holidays, chairman of the Secondary Schools Teachers Association Ran Erez tells Ynet — meaning the strike, in its fourth day Wednesday, could continue for another two months.

For the moment, “as far as we’re concerned, summer vacation is extended for a few days, it’s not the end of the world,” Erez says of the strike, which was officially announced last Thursday.

There were no new meetings scheduled today between the Secondary Schools Teachers Association, the Education Ministry and the Finance Ministry, who have been engaged in deadlocked negotiations over long-simmering salary, benefit and contract issues.

Yesterday, after a morning meeting ended with no results and anticipating a lengthy strike, Education Minister Yoav Kisch said that the ministry would work with local authorities and youth groups to open “alternative frameworks” to hold non-academic activities for high school students.

The main sticking point in the negotiations is the government’s push to allow individual contracts for teachers, which they say will allow for more hiring flexibility and provide wages based on results or ability, instead of seniority.

The union has remained steadfast against this move, saying that individual agreements would turn teachers into “contract workers” without the benefits or job security that teachers enjoy, allow for the hiring of unqualified teachers, and lead to lower wages, increased staff turnover and reduced quality of education.

The instructors are also demanding retroactive wage increases and other bonuses that were agreed upon before the last school year began, but which were deferred due to Hamas’s October 7 attack and the outbreak of war.

According to reports, the Education Ministry has offered to provide at least some of the wage increases and bonuses the teachers are seeking.