[etni] (no subject)
- From: maxinetz <maxinetz@xxxxxxx>
- To: ETNI <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:56:02 +0200
Now that Ran Erez is conducting round-the-clock negotiations with the
Ministry of the Treasury, my prediction is that the strike will be over
within a week and in the end what will we have gained? Perhaps another
10% salary increase, an overall monthly addition of 400, 500 shekels net to
our salaries? To quote Peggy Lee, "Is that all there is?" Is that why
we have been demonstrating, releasing helium balloons into the air,
standing on street corners, writing clever slogans on placards, busking,
writing letters, pitching protest tents, and losing 2/3 of our October
salary ? For another 400 shekels a month and it's back to business as
usual?
What I am asking is if we have not been led naively by the nose by a
leadership which is opposed to real change, which seeks to perpetuate the
status quo.
I've been reading about the reform signed with the Histadrut Teachers' Union
and am wondering if we haven't been too hasty in rejecting it so
passionately. I would like to bring up a few points:
1) One of the main complaints is that gmulim have been canceled.
Now, gmulim have not been CANCELED. They will be calculated differently,
that is true. As far as I understand it, teachers
will have to accumulate a certain number of hours of in-service training in
order to advance to a higher darga (180 hours, I think). So what is the
difference if it is added by percentage points or by an advance in darga?
It's six of this, a half-dozen of that. What difference does it make what
it's called IF YOU ARE MAKING MORE MONEY?
2) The demand that all teachers have a university degree is right and
should be welcomed.
3) There is a lot of talk about all the additional hours that we will
have to put in, with our winding up making less per hour. Now, I am
definitely against more frontal hours, but unless I am mistaken, the
additional hours we would have to give are for teaching small groups of
pupils and "shaot shihiah." I already have five "windows" in my
schedule during which I am at school ANYWAY. Why would it hurt me to
finally get PAID for those hours? In the end isn't that what would happen?
Those extra hours would most likely be fit into those "holes" in our
teaching schedule during which we are usually doing school-related stuff
in any case and not getting paid for it.
4) The general principle of advancement based not just on getting one
year older, but on achievement and merit, really appeals to me. This
motivates us to achieve more, to initiate, to excel as teachers.
Now, there's a great deal about this reform that is either illogical,
misguided or beyond my ability to comprehend. Why on earth would anyone
agree to be a mechanechet or rakezet shichvah if they do not get hours for
it, only gmulim? One would have to be certifiably mad, unless there is
some stipulation that in order to achieve the highest darga, one must be a
mechanechet or rakezet shichvah! Does anyone know anything about this?
I also am well-aware that there is no talk in the reform about reduction in
class size. This is a glaring omission, I agree. I also think that
even 15,000 bruto as a maximum salary (36 years of experience, darga 8 - and
it is not clear to me what you have to do in order to reach that promised
land. Win a Nobel Prize?) is not enough to attract young, talented
people into the
teaching profession. But it all boils down to money in the end, doesn't
it? I'm not a math teacher but it seems to me that a salary increase of
26% is higher than an increase of 8-9%.
If I'm mistaken in what I have written above, I would love to know. I am
so confused myself!! But I'm just thinking, that's all...The idle musings
of a teacher with too much time on her hands..
Enjoy the next few days because we'll be back to work soon!
Regards, Maxine Tsvaigrach
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