Schools to open late Tuesday as teachers call warning strike
Union claims thousands of teachers didn't receive full salaries; kindergartens, primary and middle schools to start at 11
Most Israelis schools will open late Tuesday, leaving hundreds of thousands of parents in the lurch as the Teachers’ Union announced a warning strike over unpaid salaries.
The union on Monday announced the partial strike for kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools, which will open only at 11 a.m., an opening salvo by the union which alleges thousands of teachers did not receive their full salary.
“The Israeli government should be embarrassed,” the Teachers’ Union said in a post on Facebook, adding that under an ongoing reform program at the Education Ministry there were still several outstanding issues regarding teacher compensation and travel expenses.
“Thousands of teachers have been seriously harmed,” the union said.
The government condemned the move, which comes just two days after students return to class following the week-long Hanukkah break.
“The education and finance ministries view the decision very seriously,” the ministries said in a joint statement. “The decision is aggressive, arbitrary and reckless.”
Special education institutions will not be affected by the strike.
Two weeks ago the education system was also disrupted as many municipalities went on strike over budgetary cuts.
In October, hundreds of teachers demonstrated outside the Education Ministry in Tel Aviv over the failure to pay their full salaries in September.
At that time Education Minister Naftali Bennett vowed that the problem of irregular salary payments, which has been ongoing for 20 years, would be solved during his term as education minister.