[etni] Re: strike???

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Interesting.  I can't resist making a few comments...

>
> On Tuesday, the two teacher unions announced they would not join
> the strike, and teachers would show up at schools as usual.
> However, the local authorities provide all the ancillary services
> necessary for schools to run - busing, security guards,
> administrators, secretaries, janitors and kindergarten
> assistants. Suspension of these services means that the schools
> will be closed.

I don't get this at all.  The employees of the Beer Sheva municipality have
been on strike more times that I can remember, meaning no secretaries, no
janitors, etc., yet the schools have always continued to function during
these strikes, complete with both teachers AND students.  If there is no
busing (shouldn't that be "bussing?", I guess that's a problem, but only for
the students who actually get bussed to school.  Most of our high school
students walk.
>
> Wasserman said that this was not the
> right time for a teachers' strike, despite the fact that teachers
> are "financially and legally prepared for an extended struggle
> and strike if it turns out that the Education Ministry is
> planning on cutting teachers' pay and conditions."

I'm glad Mr. Wasserman doesn't represent me, because unlike you rich
elementary school teachers (or at least that's the picture Wasserman is
painting), I am not financially prepared for an extended strike, unless, of
course, my union is planning on paying my salary.

>
> According to Wasserman, teachers will arrive at school as usual
> on Tuesday. "If there will be no security services [at the
> school], teachers will not teach as usual, but will receive the
> pupils in the school," Wasserman said, and added that if the
> strike continued, teachers would decide each day whether to join
> the strike.

Ok, I can't resist...  Was Wasserman speaking English or does the translator
have a problem with conditionals?  And what on earth does the last sentence
mean?  Will the teachers decide or will their union decide?

>
> The Education Ministry also announced Sunday that it will not
> permit the school day to proceed if there is no security

Ok, this answers my previous question, sort of.  It raises other questions,
though.  I'll spare you.
>
>
> The NIS 500 million cut in education funding includes a NIS 40
> million reduction in state subsidies for school busing - which
> the local authorities are obligated by law to provide for all
> students who live more than 5 kilometers from a school - and a
> NIS 220 million cut in state financing for secretaries, janitors
> and other administrative personnel, which the local authorities
> cannot compensate for through dismissals or pay cuts, because
> these employees are protected via collective wage agreements. In
> addition, the Education Ministry will no longer provide any
> financing for renovations and repairs of schools and kindergartens.
>

Interesting.  You can't fire the secretaries and the janitors, but according
to recent news, firing teachers is no problem.  I have no comment on the
last sentence of this paragraph because it's just incredibly ridiculous.  If
nobody's going to give the local authorities money for repairs and
renovations, does that mean that there will be none?

Education is obviously no longer a top priority in this country.  How very
sad.

Bari

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