Councilor Niubó has overcome thymus cancer: "I feel obligated to explain it"

Barcelona"I am well and recovered," stated the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, this Thursday, in her first words after returning to work following a leave of absence. A medical leave that lasted two months and for which Niubó has now explained the reason. "I hadn't said it until now, but it was cancer, a thymic cancer, which is a gland located between the lung and the heart," the minister detailed in an interview with SER Catalunya, where she also said she hadn't made it public to protect her family and prevent them from suffering. Now, however, she states: "I feel a bit obligated to explain it, because other people may be going through similar processes."

Niubó explained that she began to suffer symptoms during the Christmas holidays and when she noticed she had vision problems. "I felt like I wanted to look at something and one eye wasn't quite focusing where I wanted it to. I couldn't see well, I had a lot of sensitivity to light, and I got scared when one day I looked at my hands up close and couldn't focus on them." The minister explained that she continued with her normal life, also thinking that what she was suffering from could be stress, until after the holidays she went to the emergency room and was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a neuromuscular disease that causes some muscle fatigue and which, in her case, affected her eye. Furthermore, this condition is often linked to thymic cancer, which led doctors to detect the tumor.

Once diagnosed, at the beginning of the year Niubó underwent "major surgery," because there could have been an impact on "important organs," and finally this Tuesday she was able to return to work.

Entrenched with USTEC

This Thursday, Niubó had the first meeting with USTEC —the majority union— and Professors of Secondary Education (Aspepc) since her return to work. The meeting comes after two strike calls with more than 30% of teachers participating during the counselor's medical leave. Despite meeting with both unions, the situation remains at a standstill: Ustec and Aspepc continue to ask to reopen negotiations regarding the agreement on improvements agreed with CCOO and UGT, while Niubó continues to defend that the Government "is not considering touching it, but rather implementing it".

"They cannot intend to implement the agreement, make propaganda, and lie about its scope for the collective to end up buying it," USTEC denounced in a statement. For all these reasons, they have reiterated that "if there is no rectification, there will be a continuation of the conflict" and have warned that this third term they will continue to call for new strikes and mobilizations "until the Government reopens negotiations".

In parallel, USTEC has harshly criticized that this week the Government sent an email to all families explaining the details of the agreed agreement. These details, among other points, also include the salary that teachers will receive in four years after the increase in the specific complement agreed with CCOO and UGT.