The Minister of Education, Carmen Ortí, who explained this Thursday in the Valencian Parliament the new budget project for her department, will convene the five most representative teaching unions for a new negotiation table tomorrow Friday from two in the afternoon, as she announced upon her arrival at the regional Parliament. Meanwhile, in the streets, thousands of teachers – about 10,000, according to the Government Delegation – are demonstrating again this Thursday with a clear warning to the Generalitat: they expect a new proposal from Education to bring positions closer and warn that “the struggle will continue next year” if an agreement is not negotiated.
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With temperatures over 30 degrees in the street, a funeral procession of conservatory teachers opened the demonstration called in Valencia this Thursday to demand an agreement that improves the working conditions of teachers and students in non-university public education. “In conservatories, teaching hours are cut every year, and the positions of retiring teachers are not filled, they are amortized. They are emptying the public system,” denounces Elena Doménech, a 32-year-old piano teacher. She carries her keyboard cased and with wheels because at the end of the march all the musicians will make a symbolic pyre with all the instruments before playing the piece Lacrimosa, from Mozart’s Requiem. “The grand piano was impossible to bring,” she jokes.
“If there are fewer places, there are fewer students, and if there are fewer students, fewer teachers are needed, and if there are fewer teachers, there are fewer students, and so on until public education is eliminated, which I believe is the intention,” summarizes this teacher, who also denounces the poor state of music and dance infrastructures, some in barracks for 20 years. The cut in hours fully impacts her because, as an accompanying pianist, she sees that the increase in ratios per group prevents her from dedicating enough time to students: “Between setting up and dismantling the instrument, only a few minutes are left to dedicate to them.”
Elena recalls the important role that music and musicians have played in the almost four weeks of indefinite strike by public teachers, whose protests have been distinguished by the music of the bands, which have started with the popular La manta al coll or Paquito el chocolatero, as well as with the traditional Moorish and Christian marches. “This procession today [with dozens of musicians loaded with their instruments] is amazing and I think it shows that we all want things to improve in public education,” she concludes.
The announcement by Minister Carmen Ortí to summon them again tomorrow Friday from two in the afternoon caught the three majority union organizations in yet another demonstration, which ended in front of the Valencian Parliament. “We think not much progress will be made; there are stalled issues such as remuneration and the Valencian language, on which we suspect we won’t advance an inch,” predicted Marc Candela, coordinator of Union Action for STEPV. He specified that any offer would be submitted for consultation with the collective.
“The mobilizations and the strike continue,” said Candela. “We have absolutely won the narrative, we have made history, and we will continue next year if they don’t want to reopen negotiations. The Ministry should be very clear that the teachers’ struggle will not stop now unless we have a document that we can positively evaluate.”
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“These mobilizations have already served to prevent the cuts” they anticipated for the next academic year from being applied, stated the head of the Federació de l’Ensenyament de CC OO, Xelo Valls, who invited the PP to “self-amend” its budgets and increase allocations for public education.
From UGT, Kilian Cuerda has asserted the strength of the teaching collective and urged the Ministry to stop “deliberately delaying” negotiations and to “truly” dialogue with the unions to end this strike that has been ongoing for four weeks.
A group of firefighters from Valencia and the Generalitat joined today’s protest, demonstrating alongside the teachers. Expressions and declarations of solidarity have also come from the EMT of Valencia collective and teachers from Murcia. Podemos MEP Irene Montero also participated in the demonstration.
Minister Carmen Ortí assured that the Consell “is aware that teachers have been carrying a lot of uncertainty for a long time” due to the increase in bureaucratic burden since 2018 and other changes and regulations introduced by the previous Botànic government. “We have not stopped negotiating; we have held 17 negotiation tables, the last ones telematically because after having been besieged [inside the Ministry last Sunday], it was considered the modality that protected everyone’s integrity,” she emphasized.
Ortí insisted that they have never stopped trying to negotiate and invited a comparison of the initial document with the latest one, where many union proposals have been accepted, she stressed, while assuring that she has not considered resigning due to the conflict: “I am here to work for the Valencian public system.”
