Mentioned in Carnival of Education

The Israeli teachers strike is mentioned in the latest Carnival of Education.

Changes

I just changed the template and other graphics on the blog. Now the "sidebar" is on the bottom, at the end.

The Teachers Strike

I'm a member of the Irgun Morim, and we're supposed to be on strike.

There's a "tradition," precedent that teachers don't strike in YESHA, but some of us don't find that valid. Teachers salaries have plummeted in comparison to other sectors.

A group of us from the Yeshiva High School Mateh Binyamin went to last night's demonstration.


We saw other religious teachers, but we didn't see any from Judea and Samaria. It's very disturbing that our fellow/neighbor teachers have no idea what's going on. The other union, the Histadrut Morim signed a horrendous agreement which give an hourly salary lower than any other academic gets.

So far, we've been forced to work, but we were given off to go to the rally. We have to strike, too.

The Strike!

Israel's Irgun Morim, the teachers union I and most high school teachers are members of, is about to go on strike. The other union, Histadrut Morim, which has mostly elementary school teachers, signed an agreement with the government last year. It's a very bad agreement. Many more teaching hours are required for a drop more money.

• No special, reduced hours for mothers of young children nor the elderly teachers like me.
• No special payments for those of us high school teachers who prepare the kids for Bagrut, the national matriculation tests.

I don't know if our school will strike; though we're all in favor of our union's stand. Traditionally, schools in Judea and Samaria don't strike, since we don't want the kids wandering around. Today we're getting the union's decision if we may join the strike or not.

Fewer and fewer young people are studying education, because the salaries are low, and the new agreements make teachers' lives even more difficult. With added required hours, there's no time to take on extra jobs.