Last Sunday, the Israel Teachers Union announced a labor dispute with the Ministry of Finance, “in protest of finance officials dragging their feet regarding the formulation of an agreement regarding teaching salaries that will prevent the massive departure of teaching staff.”
The Israel Teachers Union says that, contrary to what was customary in the past, they will not wait until the beginning of the school year on September 1st and will begin union measures in the near future. According to the Israel Teachers Union, this will be done “in order to accelerate the formulation of a teaching salary agreement, which is the only possible way to prepare and confront the great teaching departure.”
The Israel Teachers Union said in a statement: “Although we warned them last week, before the declaration of the dispute, the Ministry of Finance does not lift a finger and continues to smear the discussions as if there is no crisis in the education system. All professionals agree that due to the massive departure of teaching staff, it will not be possible to hold regular classes next year.
“Everyone understands that only a better teaching salary agreement can prevent the collapse of the education system, and Finance Ministry officials are just being lazy. They are disconnected and do not see at all the catastrophic reality that we face every day.”
Yaffa Ben-David, head of the Israel Teachers Union, added that “Finance Ministry officials have become accustomed to paying low wages to women and are trying to continue to assert discrimination against the women of the education system over and over again. Israel is running out of female teachers and kindergarten teachers because they are tired of coming home with a poor salary.”
Ben-David called on government ministers to intervene in the crisis.
“It cannot be that the government is dealing with every issue, except for the one concerning every home in Israel – the collapse of the education system. You can’t leave such an important issue to Finance Ministry officials. The political echelon must intervene to prevent the crisis.”
This article was translated from Hebrew by Benji Sharp.
