Bar-On: Lecturers holding 100,000 students hostage because of cash - Haaretz

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Thu., January 17, 2008 Shvat 10, 5768

Israel Time: 16:52 (EST+7)

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		Finance Minister Roni Bar-On. (Ofer Vaknin)

Last update - 16:53 16/01/2008

Bar-On: Lecturers holding 100,000 students hostage because of cash

By Shahar Ilan and Tamara Traubmann, Haaretz Correspondents

Tags: Roni Bar-On, Yuli Tamir

Finance Minister Roni Bar-On, in an urgent meeting of the Knesset plenum on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing senior lecturers' strike and the threat made by university heads to cancel the semester, said that "the lecturers are holding 100,000 students hostage and threatening with a national disaster because of money that they don't even deserve."

The finance minister slammed the lecturers' demands, saying they were "pointless, and exaggerated in a wild and reckless way."

On Tuesday, the university presidents and heads of the university governing councils decided unanimously at an emergency meeting that all Israeli universities will shut down Sunday if the Finance Ministry does not reach an agreement with the striking senior lecturers.

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"We cannot continue in the present situation of the ongoing strike," the presidents and governing councils decided. "And therefore it was decided that if by noon Friday no agreement is reached between the state and the academic faculty, in accordance with the compromise proposal suggested today by the university presidents committee to both sides, the universities will close starting Sunday at 8 A.M."

The decision is meant to pressure the treasury and the lecturers, who began striking 77 days ago and are in the midst of the longest university strike in Israel's history, to reach a compromise and sign an agreement.

A shutdown would mean that even the classes that were held during the strike will no longer be held as of Sunday. It would also bring research to a halt and would probably keep some 15,000 faculty members and administrative personnel from drawing a paycheck. The full ramifications of closing down the universities have yet to be determined, since nothing like this has happened in the country before.

"This is not a punishment - it's the closure of universities because there is no budget, since in this situation, there is no way to run the universities," said Prof. Moshe Kaveh, who heads the university presidents committee. "The universities will open only when the situation permits it, after a solution is reached."

The university presidents are proposing that the lecturers receive a 21 percent compensation for the erosion of their salaries since 1997, instead of the 35 percent they are demanding. According to the compromise, the compensation payments would be spread out until the end of 2009 instead of being paid immediately.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Yuli Tamir is threatening a coalition crisis in light of the failed negotiations between the Finance Ministry and the senior lecturers.

"We have a clear demand to go to a coalition crisis on this matter," said Tamir. "I believe that a lot of pressure must be exerted in order to prevent the semester from being canceled."

In an effort to solicit support for a final battle, university administration officials contacted members of the universities' boards of governors, including some of the biggest donors to Israeli universities and to the country itself, to tell them about the crisis. The university officials were hoping the donors would pressure Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to get the Finance Ministry to be more flexible in negotiations with the lecturers.

Negotiations between the lecturers and government broke down once again Tuesday. Treasury officials had been slated to present new ideas to resolve the conflict, but instead they withdrew to the position they had taken more than a week ago - offering about half the amount the lecturers are willing to accept in wages, after they significantly lowered their demands.

Bar-On said he would refuse to exceed the framework of public-sector wage agreements in order to respond to what he called the "excessive demands" of the senior lecturers.

Meanwhile, some 150 students have been taking part in a sit-in at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev since Tuesday afternoon, threatening to remain in the Senate building until they were assured the semester would not be canceled.

"We'll sleep here, we'll live here, we'll eat here, we'll have parties," said student union head Yonatan Green. "We'll stay here until an agreement is reached."

Related articles:

University pres.: Campuses to close Sunday until crisis over

University presidents' chairman warns academic year may be canceled

Lecturers, university heads meet in effort to save semester

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1.	treasury holding students hostage	17:27	\|	peeved citizen	16/01/08

2.	The face of Israel: a worthless hack	17:36	\|	Dr. Robert Frosch	16/01/08

3.	Corruption without frontiers...	17:52	\|	TEA	16/01/08

4.	University AMBIVALENCE	18:15	\|	Avraham	16/01/08

5.	TEA	18:16	\|	Michael	16/01/08

6.	Roni Baron, you total and utter waste of space	18:21	\|	incensed student	16/01/08

7.	strike	18:22	\|	John	16/01/08

8.	Roni Bar-On WAKE UP	18:38	\|	annoyed local	16/01/08

9.	TEA and Corruption	18:38	\|	Long memory	16/01/08

10.	Bar-On and the 100,000 students	18:50	\|	One who cares	16/01/08

11.	Bar-On	18:57	\|	kobi	16/01/08

12.	Tantrum by Bar-on	19:13	\|	Prof	16/01/08

13.	To #9 Academic appointments in Israel	19:24	\|	TEA	16/01/08

14.	Publicize how budget is used and the public can judge	19:29	\|	TEA	16/01/08

15.	Bar-on should resign	19:40	\|	Prof	16/01/08

16.	Footdragging by the Treasury	19:54	\|	Daphna	16/01/08

17.	TEA and TEA	19:56	\|	One who cares	16/01/08

18.	Plain pique	19:57	\|	Prof	16/01/08

19.	Bar-On the Mor-On & his propagada victim sidekick TEA	21:04	\|	Jeff	16/01/08

20.	Bar-On the Mor-On #2	21:14	\|	Jeff	16/01/08

21.	To #17 Academic `should be` is not what it is.	22:07	\|	TEA	16/01/08

22.	To #5 Academics do not allow public scrutiny	22:17	\|	TEA	16/01/08

23.	21 and 22	09:09	\|	One who cares	17/01/08

24.	To #23 Academic Mismanagement?	16:33	\|	TEA	17/01/08

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