‘School will not start,’ warns head of Teachers Union amid impasse in wage talks
Finance Ministry blames teachers for refusing to reach agreement during ‘complicated time’; union says ministry held negotiations ‘for sake of appearance’ ahead of new school year
Salary negotiations between the Teachers Union and government officials for high school teachers were said to reach an impasse on Thursday, just two weeks before the start of the school year on September 1, with the union head warning that “school will not start this year.”
The Ynet news site quoted union head Ran Erez as saying that the education minister and commissioner for wages at the Finance Ministry had admitted that there was no budget to allow for wage negotiations.
“As we warned, the Finance Ministry held negotiations only for the sake of appearance, without intention to reach agreements,” Erez was quoted as saying.
He added that the deputy commissioner for wages charged during the meeting that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had withdrawn from his commitment to pay retroactive salary increases from September 2023 due to a lack of funds for high school students and teachers.
The Finance Ministry reportedly retorted, “The Teachers Union continued its refusal to reach agreements and even widened the dispute.”
The ministry in turn blamed the union for standing in the way of what it called an “excellent agreement” that would bring stability to the education system during “a complicated time.”
“We will continue to do everything to provide the education system the stability it needs, to introduce advanced tools for its development, and to guarantee excellent employment conditions for teachers and administrators,” the ministry said.
The 2024 budget slashed millions of shekels in funding from the Education, Finance, National Security, Health and Welfare ministries to direct them toward displaced residents of the south and north amid the ongoing war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ October 7 massacre in southern Israel.
The Education Ministry faced a cut of NIS 38,283,000 ($10.3 million) in July.
In February, the High School Teachers Union announced a strike which it said was in response to a push by the Knesset Finance Committee to initiate individual contracts for teachers for the 2024 school year, instead of a collective salary agreement.
Education Minister Yoav Kisch was quoted by i24news on Wednesday as saying that other issues needed to be solved in addition to the contracts, though it was unclear what they were.
“Those who threaten that the school year will not start are completely disconnected from the Israeli reality … The school year must start, this is our national duty to students, teachers and parents,” Kisch posted on X Thursday evening.
He went on to assure that negotiations would continue and that an agreement would be reached.
However, The Marker financial paper reported that no other negotiations have been scheduled at this stage.
Earlier on Thursday, Kisch told 103FM that he saw two threats to the school year starting on time, “war in the north… and negotiations with Ran Erez.”
“It will be a scandal if Ran doesn’t accept a good offer,” Kisch said in the interview, adding that a decision to go on strike would be irresponsible.
Salary negotiations which threaten to delay the start of the school year are commonplace in Israel. Last year, with mere hours to go before the start of the 2023-2024 academic year, high school teachers and government officials reached a deal to bump up salaries, avoiding a threatened strike that would have delayed classes.
It marked the second year in a row that a strike was averted at the last moment after a separate teachers union that represents elementary and middle school teachers nearly delayed the start of the 2022-2023 school year before the Treasury agreed to raise their salaries too.
