Last update - 00:00 26/12/2007
T.A. University head says opposes injunctions against striking faculty
By Tamara Traubmann and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents
Tel Aviv University President Prof. Zvi Galil said on Wednesday that he opposes injunctions forcing striking senior faculty to go back to work.
The Council of University Presidents requested the National Labor Court to issue back-to-work orders to the university faculty, whose strike has entered its 58th day.
"I asked the Council of University Presidents chair, Prof. Moshe Kaveh, to remove Tel Aviv University from the request," Prof. Galil told 500 senior lecturers during a meeting at Tel Aviv University.
Galil said that "understandably, the lecturers have no faith in treasury officials. They have wasted a lot of time." He also criticized the lecturers union for not being flexible enough.
Meanwhile, The National Labor Court agreed to give striking lecturers one week to respond to a request by the Council of University Presidents. The court initially demanded the professors and the government respond by Wednesday afternoon.
In their request for the injunctions, the university presidents asked that the court first instruct the lecturers and treasury to return to the negotiations table immediately and submit progress reports every two days. The presidents also asked the court to issue a temporary injunction demanding that the lecturers return to work within seven days if the strike did not end.
Moreover, they requested that if an agreement is not reached by January 13, the date on which the university presidents say the damage of the strike will become irreversible, the court should issue permanent back-to-work orders.
The country's senior university faculty responded with shock Tuesday to the university presidents' decision to take legal measures to end their strike. They did not believe the back-to-work orders issued for the striking high-school teachers would apply for them, too.
At some universities, there is talk of a "revolt" against the administration, including a demonstration of faculty members and students Wednesday against the Council of University Presidents' decision.
Jerusalem student union leader arrested
Hundreds of students blocked the road outside the Prime Minister's Residence during a demonstration in support of the lecturers' strike. They called on Olmert to seek a mutually accepted solution to the crisis. The chair of the Hebrew University student union, Shlomo Levy, was arrested.
Meanwhile in Be'er Sheva, roughly 300 lecturers and students blocked the main city road in protest. The protest was held after lecturers and students held a meeting to discuss unifying their struggle.
The university presidents, for their part, are in a bind: They are the faculty's employers, but have no authority to grant wage hikes themselves; that requires treasury approval. They were also professors themselves before their nomination for presidency, and will return to the faculty ranks when their terms are over.
"This unprecedented measure has a destructive affect on the relationship between the faculty and the president of the university," Prof. Ben Tzion Munitz, chair of the Senior Faculty Association of the University of Tel Aviv, wrote Tuesday in an e-mail to faculty members.
"The crisis was created because of the government, but the Council of University Presidents is now acting as the executor of the treasury's policy," Dr. Iris Agmon of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev said Tuesday. She is among the founders of the forum to save public education, created during the strike to resist the privatization of higher education.
The faculty association of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem held a general meeting Tuesday. The lecturers voted overwhelmingly - 360 to 10 - in favor of a harsh denunciation of the university administration and the Council of University Presidents.
According to Prof. Asher Cohen, a faculty member and a member of the lecturers' negotiating team, this is the first time that a university faculty has denounced its administration.
"We will honor the court orders; we will not violate the law," Cohen said, "but we will stop cooperating with the university. For example, we won't approve new curricula, we won't participate in university committees or in national committees." According to Cohen, cooperation is the essence of the university, and "the Council of University Presidents harmed this essence very seriously."
The planned legal action points to a significant change experienced by the universities due to the shift to an administrative hierarchy headed by a president. The change was mandated about five years ago as part of the Maltz Committee reforms.
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