Court Shuts Down Teachers Strike

The Tel Aviv Labor Court ruled illegal on Thursday a wildcat strike called by the Israel Teachers Union to protest the easing of quarantine rules for students.

The court upheld the contention of state prosecutors that the union order issued Wednesday night for teachers to stay out on Thursday violated the norms of labor disputes.

“This is a violent strike, this is a political strike making illegal and illegitimate use of organizational power, aimed at changing policy of bodies authorized by law,” prosecutors said in a letter to the court.

“In my opinion, it is a strong-arm move that is not right,” Education Ministry Director-General Dalit Stauber told the Radio103FM station.

Stauber maintained that the new quarantine rules, which lift the requirement for self-isolation of students exposed to a covid carrier but mandates two home virus tests a week, will make schools “the safest places for every citizen in the country.”

Union leader Yaffa Ben-David, rejected the allegations, characterizing her stay-away order as a “protest” and not a strike, in an interview with the Kan public broadcaster Thursday.

Ben-David claimed that in decreeing the new rules, the government made a “populist decision and is abandoning teaching staff,” by exposing them to infected students.

Edna David, deputy secretary-general of the Teachers Union, told Channel 12 news that the government plan was “very irresponsible. There is chaos in the education system. They are gambling here on the health of educators,” she said.

“I have never heard the education minister talking about the health of the teachers and kindergarten teachers,” she added.

But Dorit Hazan, chair of the Histadrut Labor Federations organization for kindergarten teachers and educators, sided with the state, telling Channel 12 that the walkout order was “irresponsible.”

“This feels as though she isn’t really concerned with the kindergarten teachers and, in general, pedagogic workers,” Hazan said.

Contributing to the uproar was a statement on Thursday from the Education Ministry that there is a shortage of test kits with which to carry out the government’s plan.