Israel’s News Blog Magazine: Daily Stories Video and Photos

The Israel university lecturers strike is now in it’s 80th day and the government has decided it has no option other than to send the issue to the National Labor Court for arbitration. The Labor Court, headed by Judge Steve Adler will have two options to decide on: whether to force the striking academic staff members to return to the class rooms and lecture halls without receiving the additional compensation package they have been hoping for; or to cancel the entire semester, which is virtually a write off anyway due to the school year having begun only days before the striking professors and lecturers began their protest in sympathy with the secondary school teachers who only recently returned to the classrooms.

Judge Adler and his associates are said to be offering the striking lecturers a package that would make up for salary discrepancies which are said to have been on-going since 2001. The deal would give lecturers an additional amount of between 11 and 20 per cent of salaries earned in the past 6 years; the amount received to be given according to the Judge decides that the actual salary erosions is either more or less than an amount of 16%.

The lecturers have been asking for a 35% bonus, however, and whether they would go ahead and accept the court’s offer has not been determined.

That the current situation has reached this state is most unfortunate, and students who are about to see not only an entire semester wiped out but monies they spent for both housing and tuition go down the tube as well. While many have nothing but the greatest sympathy for the strikers, that the students are losing both valuable time and money is a real shame, and goes above and beyond the reasons for the strike’s beginning in mid-October

With only a few exceptions, Israeli university students usually begin their academic studies .in their early to mid 20’s – usually 4 years later than students in other countries who don’t have to do compulsory military service. This means that the time they complete these studies they are already in their mid to late 20’s and even older if they have to work first to earn funds to pay their tuition and other expenses, as many of them do. By the time they are ready to enter the work force they find themselves having to compete for positions in companies that expect them to have not only an academic degree but possibly an advance one and a year or two of actual work experience as well.

Academic teaching positions have never been something the one gets rich in; and this goes for those abroad, including prestige private institutions in countries like England and the USA. The old image of a professor or lecturer riding his bicycle to class, and wearing a worn sport coat or sweater with leather elbow patches has been proof positive enough that such a career has to include a good amount of dedication on their behalf and usually requires them to augment their modest salaries by either “publishing (textbooks or other academic works) or perishing”.

What will result from the arbitration will most likely come too late to save the current semester, let alone the entire academic year. And the ones who will suffer the most will be the students themselves who only want a chance to succeed in an ever increasingly competitive world.