Meeting between senior lecturers and finance minister ends without results

A meeting Saturday night between representatives of senior university lecturers and Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On in an attempt to put an end to the strike was concluded without results. During the meeting Bar-On proposed that an agreed-upon arbiter be appointed to settle the issue of the erosion of lecturers' salaries since 1997. The lecturers, however, turned down the offer, claiming that, after nine weeks of striking they wished to agree on compensation without the further deferral such a move would entail.