Last update - 00:00 14/12/2007
Knesset panel: Gov't responsible for ongoing university strike
By Tamara Traubmann, Haaretz Correspondent
The Knesset Education Committee said Thursday it was the government's responsibility to bring the senior university lecturers strike to an end.
The panel called on the prime minister and education and finance ministers to negotiate with the striking faculty members until a solution was found to the eight-week strike that has paralyzed the country's universities.
The negotiations between the senior faculty and treasury representatives broke up on Monday, with each side blaming the other for the stalemate.
"The faculty strike is being handled in an irresponsible way and insufferable complacency," said committee chair MK Michael Melchior (Labor-Meimad). "Entire days go by with no negotiations. What are they waiting for? They could have reached an agreement with the high school teachers a month ago, and when they finally sat down to consecutive talks the crisis was over."
Professor Shlomo Grossman, chairman of the Council for Higher Education's Planning and Budgeting Committee, said that canceling the semester is like canceling the whole study year and its cost is estimated at NIS 4-5 billion.
The Knesset panel demanded that the treasury budget division find a way to compensate universities and students for the cost of the strike.
"We were already in the final stages of agreement when the treasury suddenly reneged on it and the talks exploded," said Professor Asher Cohen of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
The treasury representative at the committee said the treasury was "ready to negotiate at any time but the faculty isn't showing any flexibility."
The head of the coordinating body for senior faculty organizations, Prof. Zvi Hacohen, said the strike's continuation would cause the students damage and urged the treasury to start serious negotiations.
"The study year will continue into the summer and medical and law students, who have already made plans for their internship, will have to postpone them because they won't have their degree yet," he said.