The state monetary deficit is carried on women's back: barriers to union action in the neo-liberalised employment of teachers and social workers in Israel

Abstract

In Israel, teaching and social work are unionised public sector occupations. Extant research has indicated two aspects of public sector employment change in these areas: de-professionalisation and the deterioration of employment conditions. In this chapter, I introduce a third aspect of public sector change that asks how the effect of unionisation on job quality has changed in these areas and how the power of the unions involved was reflected in responses to the Covid-19 crisis. I compare job quality in these two areas during two time-spells: since the advent of New Public Management (NPM) in 1994 and during the first months of the Covid-19 crisis (March–May 2020). I argue that, in Israel, unions have struggled to make an impact on resisting reforms and deteriorating job quality that have resulted from NPM. The Covid-19 pandemic, however, made labour relations in these areas visible, indicating that unions can protect job quality but, operating in isolation, they are less able to make the case for enhanced job quality.