The unions of senior university faculty members declared a labor dispute on Wednesday as prelude to a strike due to university managements' attempts to alter labor relations and collective wage agreements.

The strike is due to begin at universities throughout the country in two weeks.

In February the University Heads Committee presented the Shochat Committee for higher education reform a paper in which they advocate employing a small part of the faculty on the basis of private contracts. The university heads did not discuss the issue with the faculty members.

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University Heads Committee chairman Professor Moshe Kaveh confirmed on Wednesday that the committee had suggested hiring new faculty members on private contracts, but later suggested the substituting of "private contracts" with "personal grants."

The chairman of the faculty unions' coordinating council, Professor Zvi Hacohen, said the faculty members were willing to negotiate all the universities' employment problems. "But instead of negotiating the university heads chose belligerent action," he said.