All Israeli educational institutions, from kindergartens to universities, were closed today as teachers and faculty members went on strike in support of wage demands. The unscheduled holiday put more than a million children and college youths on the streets and was especially hard on working mothers many of whom were forced to take their youngsters to their places of enrollment.
The teachers, elementary through high school grades, have been fighting for months for a pay increase that would bring their salaries to the same level as government-employed engineers. They won their point as a result of a court order upholding their demands and were putting the final touches to a new contract that included a 15 percent-plus wage hike. But when the Finance Ministry demanded that the teachers undertake a no-strike pledge for the rest of the year as a condition of their raise, the union balked.
A one-day strike was called for today and a half-day strike for tomorrow when classes will be dismissed at 11 a.m. The university faculties called a three-day strike starting today to back up their demand for the same supplementary payments that were granted the teachers. The government failed to get a court order to head off the teachers’ strike until next Monday when a higher court will rule on the State’s appeal against the original court order granting the wage increase.
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