Israel's Teachers Union on Thursday morning sent a letter to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Education Minister Yoav Kisch, warning the ministers that they plan to appeal to the Supreme Court if the cuts to teachers' wages go through. Educational staff are facing potential cuts to their wages, following the Finance Ministry's intention to reduce the teaching budget by one billion NIS. The cuts would reduce teachers' salaries by 300-860 NIS each month, depending on the salary of the teacher in question. Ran Erez, head of Israel's Teachers Union, said, "If the government is releasing a large sector from the need to participate in the collective effort, apparently there is no need for this, and then there is no reason to require only some of the teachers to donate from their salaries. We will fight an all-out war to defeat this." Related articles: Teachers' union announces agreement with Finance Ministry Teachers Union working to fire teachers who did not strike Strike in high schools suspended, classes to resume Finance Min. planning to cut striking teachers' summer salaries "A decision such as this, which at its base has considerations which are unrelated, considerations which discuss the person and not the issue at hand, which have a goal of cutting from one and not from another - not due to a budgetary need or the economic necessity of the matter, but due to the other's belonging to a certain body or sector, is an unusually discriminatory decision. Such a decision cannot stand, from a legal and judicial perspective." "Therefore, the Teachers Union is honored to turn to you in this urgent letter, with the demand to instruct the State to announce in its guidelines the cancellation of this improper decision, and thereby cancel the selective cuts, which are discriminatory and illegal, and which are being done to the wages of educational staff in the State of Israel; prior to the Union's filing an appeal against this decision."
