This article was published before the high school teachers’ strike came to an end without the achievement of a new contract.
Tens of thousands of unionized high school teachers are continuing to strike following a failure to reach a new salary agreement between the high school teachers union and the Ministries of Finance and Education.
The teachers strike comes after two years of struggling for a new contract. On the eve of the new school year, which was set to begin September 1, the parties reached some agreements, but they were unable to sign a contract. In order to avoid yet another school year with no collective agreement, union chair Ran Erez declared a strike.
One of the key disagreements holding up a new contract is the ministries’ insistence on the right to hire nonunion teachers.
Gal Lustig, 33, who teaches history and Bible in a high school in Kiryat Ata, is one of the leaders of the Teachers in the Struggle group, which has been active in supporting the teachers union’s demands. Over the past two years, the group has organized protests and conversations about the union’s demands. Those actions diminished following the outbreak of the war, but now they are back in full force.
“On the simplest level, we are now two years without a contract,” Lustig said of the decision to strike. “In addition, and more essentially, allowing nonunion contracts is tantamount to the privatization of the education system.”
The finance minister has insisted that 10% of teachers and 10% of principals be employed via nonunion contracts. It is unclear if the minister of education’s proposal demands nonunion contracts for 6% of teachers and 6% of principals, or 6% altogether of teachers and principals.
Lustig said that “creeping privatization” has been going on in the education system for years, driven in part by the right-wing Kohelet Forum think tank that also backed the controversial judicial reforms.
“I believe that it’s the responsibility of a workers union to protect the public systems, and thus the teachers unions must protect the education system. So in the long run, I prefer not to allow nonunion contracts, even at the price of a smaller wage increase,” he said.
Nonunion contracts represent the wrong approach to education, Lustig said. “Working in education doesn’t need to be something temporary. The ideal would be that people come in and become better and more professional as time goes on,” he explained. “The logic of the high-tech market, to jump from job to job, it doesn’t work here.”
Lustig, who is about to begin his third year teaching, is especially concerned about young teachers like himself. “I am nervous that different forces are trying to exploit the fact that younger folks don’t think about pensions and similar benefits,” he said. “But the truth is that we’re now young teachers, and at some point we’ll become veteran teachers, so we need to ensure that all our rights are protected.”
Over the last two years, the high school teachers union has carried out various labor actions other than full strikes such as not entering grades into the school systems, not participating in extracurricular activities and trips, and ending the work day at 3 p.m. Yet those actions have failed to produce the desired effect. “What is important to the public and to the country are the high school diplomas, therefore, the sanctions that affect graduation have the greatest effect,” he said.
Lustig said that he regrets not talking more about this struggle with his students. He lamented that they had been able to do that in the past when the teachers got their last contract.
“My fantasy is that someone out there will come to their senses and realize that they need to reach deep into their pocket and invest right now in the education system,” Lustig said. “If it doesn’t happen, then alright, we’ll strike as much as we need to.”
This article was translated from Hebrew by Tzivia Gross.
