University heads meet Bar-On in effort to end strike

Educators say if strike isn't resolved by the end of this week, the entire academic year may be lost.

By HAVIV RETTIG GUR
Ronnie Bar On 88 224 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Ronnie Bar On 88 224
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The presidents of Israel's public universities met Monday with Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On late into the night to try to bridge the differences between the Finance Ministry and the Senior Lecturers Union, which has been on strike for nine weeks. The meeting came after Committee of University Presidents chairman Prof. Moshe Kaveh turned to the Prime Minister's Office last week, explaining that if the strike wasn't over by the end of this week, the entire academic year may be lost, resulting in billions of shekels lost to the economy due to the gap of an entire class of trained professionals. Reached late Monday evening, Kaveh would not comment on developments in the as-yet unfinished meeting. On Sunday, the Senior Lecturers Union expanded its strike to include not only formal courses and extracurricular activities in the country's eight universities, but also the professors' participation in prestigious IDF courses, such as the IAF pilots course and the naval ship commanders course.