Olmert calls on senior university lecturers to return without court order

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called on the striking senior university lecturers to return to their jobs rather than be forced to do so on Sunday. The prime minister, opening the cabinet meeting asked lecturers "at the last minute so that [they] will not be forced to work by order of the court. We have already learned from previous strikes that carried on for longer than was necessary." The National Labor Court was set to decide Sunday whether to issue injunctions forcing the lecturers - who have been on strike for 80 days - to return to work.