If teachers aren't vaccinated within 11 days, classes will stop - Union
Teacher' Union secretary-general announced that the education system will shut in the event that the first vaccination round for teachers in Israel is not completed by January 12.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFIsraeli kids wearing school bags ahead of the first day of school and kindergarten outside their home in Jerusalem on August 31, 2020, The Israeli secular state education system will open tomorrow. (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)
Yaffa Ben-David, secretary-general of the Israeli Teachers' Union, said in an interview with Channel 12 that if all teachers do not receive at the first round of COVID-19 vaccines by January 12, the entire education system will be shut down.The secretary-general announced the potential labor dispute will occur in the event that the first vaccination round for teachers in Israel is not completed by that day. In this case, teachers will embark on a nationwide strike."If I could give a directive to the education staff saying 'Do not come' today, I would do it," Ben-David told Channel 12."But since I keep the law, and certainly have to work according to the law, I will declare a labor dispute. I notified the Health Ministry and the Education Ministry and said to them unequivocally: If the education staffs who want to be vaccinated are not vaccinated by January 12, the entire education system will be shut down," Ben David said."I do not understand why the Teachers' Union needed to declare a conflict on this issue over something that is obvious," the secretary-general continued."If they had listened to us at the beginning of the closure when we said to do small classes, believe us, that no closure would have an effect and it would have been possible to continue the keeping education system open until the end of the [school] year," she said."The coronavirus today puts the education staff in a different position. There are many teachers who come because they have no choice and also because they love the students and want to teach them, but they are very worried about their health and well-being and that should not be. [If] there will be no vaccines - there is no need to open up the education system. "As of Thursday, the education system remains open despite a nationwide lockdown current in effect.
