Between now and the end of the school year, during the next month and a half, there will be a total of seventeen days of strikes in the country's schools and institutes, a string of stoppages spread across different zones. The average will be five days per center: this will be the impact on students and their families. In other words, educational centers will cease to function normally for 5 out of the 35 remaining school days until the holidays, which is 14% of the total. In any sector, a stoppage of this magnitude would cause a major disruption. Of course, it will be for the educational world. A world, moreover, that has a very strong social impact.
Within this calendar of union pressure, between May 11 and June 5, meaning over four weeks, there will be three days of general strike. Two major demonstrations have also been called for May 12 and June 5. There are few recent precedents for such a tough standoff in the educational sector or any other sector. The leadership of the protest is held by the majority teachers' union, USTEC, which has the support of Professors de Secundària, CGT, and Intersindical.
With such an extensive and intense calendar, it seems difficult to leave much room for any kind of agreement or, even worse, even for negotiation. In fact, the Government has already stated that it respects the right to strike but will not budge. Everything points, therefore, to an entrenchment of the clash between unions and the administration. Can the country afford it? Is the labor situation of teachers that serious? With this maximum protest, is there a danger of further increasing the discontent and frustration of teachers and alienating them from society? Are they surely the most affected sector by the multicrisis we are suffering?
Should we consider this end of the school year lost? For negotiation purposes, probably. For educational purposes, largely so as well. It will be a disappointing end to the school year, with a significant reduction in teaching hours for students and a tense atmosphere in the educational community among teachers, families, and the administration. Of course, the right to strike is fundamental. It is necessary, of course, to exercise it with moderation and taking into account the repercussions, in this case with a direct impact on child welfare and educational level, and on family work-life balance.
A strike like this will hardly yield results, it entrenches positions and distances any possibility of dialogue, however difficult it may be. The success of the latest stoppages could become a trap for their promoters because if the Government, as it seems, holds its ground, will they call another strike in September? Until when?
Teachers feel like helpless victims of a degraded education and the Government, after making a budgetary effort –agreed with the minority unions in the sector: CCOO and UGT–, feels unfairly valued. We are in a dead end. It is the worst that could happen to the school world, which is already sufficiently punished. All that was missing was the introduction of plainclothes Mossos agents –here the Government has explained itself poorly and inadequately– and the confirmation that many school trips have been cancelled. The course will end with a accumulation of bad news.
