Israel's high school teachers union officially announced a strike today set to begin on September 1, the first day of the new school year. Tensions between the union and the government had been rising for weeks, with negotiations imploding several days ago following a proposal to allow for the hire of teachers outside of the union contract.
Ran Erez, chair of the Secondary School Teachers Union, said that representatives of the Ministry of Finance are intentionally drawing out the negotiations. “They want to force us to strike. They think that if we strike the public will be against us,” he said. “They want to break organized labor so they can control workers more easily.”
Erez said that he would meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich if they called on, but said that “you can’t trust politicians.” He also described Minister of Education Yoav Kisch as “unable to do anything” and “literally a puppet in the hands of the minister of finance.”
Last week, Erez said that the teachers would strike if a new salary agreement wasn’t reached by August 28. Since the last contract expired two years ago, teachers have carried out a labor struggle including not participating in extracurricular activities and not entering matriculation exam grades.
At the core of the disagreement between the union and the government is a clause that would allow the hiring of teachers outside of the collective agreement.
Education Minister Yoav Kisch sent a letter to secondary school teachers yesterday warning them that if the union does strike on September 1, the next contract proposal will be less generous than what is currently on the table.
In the letter, Kisch detailed his proposal, which would include a pay increase for all teaching staff. The pay raise would be enacted through a gradual 2,000 shekel ($546) per month increase as well as a retroactive 9,600 shekel ($2,623) grant to be given in two installments—the first at the beginning of the upcoming school year, and the second at the start of the next. The second installment is under the condition that there be no strike.
According to the proposal, an additional increase will be in the form of “flexible rewards” to be distributed at the discretion of school administrators. The pay increase for advanced training will also rise to 1.3%, and economic benefits that are not in the form of salary increases will be given in the amount of 220 million shekels ($60 million).
According to Kisch, Erez’s insistence on blocking non-union contracts has held up those benefits.
“In light of the budgetary constraints of 2025 and the Swords of Iron War, we are entering a time of budgetary uncertainty,” Kisch wrote in his letter. Those budgetary constraints have already resulted in cuts to money for teachers’ salaries.
Kisch’s office told Davar that “the necessary amount will be allocated” once an agreement is signed.
This article was translated from Hebrew by Tzivia Gross.
