In 15 days the new school year begins in Catalonia and nothing seems to indicate that the return to school will not coincide with a new strike day by employees in the education sector. The spokesperson for Ustec, Iolanda Segura, demanded this Monday that the Department of Education resume negotiations with the unions, at least to avoid more protests beyond the one scheduled for September 8. In recent weeks, the Generalitat has focused on consulting other members of the educational community, basically management and families, thus setting aside the labor conflict.
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“We do not believe that the strike on September 8 can be avoided, but what may come after could be avoided. To avoid it, we should have sat down to negotiate all this time and that has not been the case,” lamented the spokesperson of the majority union in Education during an interview with El Matí de Catalunya Ràdio.
Segura said that since June 13 they have been waiting for Education to accept their proposal to sit down and negotiate, although she warned that the current situation “is not solved with four advances.” “The educational crisis and the unrest will not disappear with an announcement of partial measures and an agreement that the collective already said was insufficient,” she added.
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The union sets the improvement of inclusive schooling, classroom ratios, and the defense of Catalan as priorities in the negotiation. Segura insisted on the need for a schedule for the implementation of the necessary structural actions. “A school cannot remain open if it is at 40-42 degrees,” she exemplified. In the first quarter of this year, the educational community held 23 strike days and Ustec had already warned of its intention to continue mobilizing, despite several agreements being reached – also on remuneration issues – and that some unions have endorsed. For example, the one that after 25 years frozen, has updated the so-called regional supplement to 700 euros per month.
The Government has called for consideration of the right to education of minors, without closing off negotiations with various actors in the community. “We have to do everything possible to resolve the situation, we will put all the resources and deployment of the agreement to make it possible,” said spokesperson Sílvia Paneque after the last Consell executiu before the summer break.
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