Teachers will go on strike again: 28,000 teachers want to continue the mobilization

BarcelonaNew chapter in the tug-of-war between teachers and the Government. This Tuesday, the majority union in the education sector, Ustec, has made public the results of the survey it sent to all teachers and professors, asking what the next steps should be to mobilize against the agreement signed between the Government, CCOO, and UGT, and without the approval of Ustec, Profesores de Secundaria, CGT, and La Intersindical. In this survey —also promoted by CGT and La Intersindical—, which was sent to all teachers' emails, three questions were asked: if they are willing to have "more strikes", how many days of strike they would have – with options ranging from one day to more than ten – and what type of strike they would prefer. The survey was answered by 31,600 teachers, and of these, 90% have stated that they "commit" to continue striking. That is, about 28,000 teachers are in favor of continuing to mobilize.

In this regard, of the teachers who have responded that they want to move towards a new strike, 58% state that they prefer "formulas that intensify the conflict and go beyond the formula proposed in the March strikes", when a week of territorial stoppages was organized which ended with one day of strike across the sector which was supported by 40% of teachers. Once the intention of these 28,000 teachers and professors was confirmed, Ustec explained that the next steps will be for the unions to meet to analyze the results of the survey and design "the plan" for the strike. A priori, next week, the unions will explain all the planned actions in this new wave of teacher mobilizations.

Although Ustec has considered that the results represent a "clear mandate in favor of new strike days", the current survey was answered by about 10,000 fewer teachers than the one Ustec sent last March. At that time, about 43,000 teachers responded to the survey, and up to 40,700 positioned themselves against the agreement between the Government, CCOO, and UGT.

Salary increase approved

The results of the Ustec consultation have been made public a few hours after the Government approved two of the points that were part of the agreement signed with CCOO and UGT. On the one hand, the first salary increase has been approved, which is expected to result in teachers receiving 3,000 euros gross per year more than today in four years. Although sources from Education indicate that work is being done to make this payment in May, for the moment, it has only been approved that teachers will receive the increase during the third quarter of this course. The salary increase corresponds to the agreed 30% increase in the specific complement and will mean that infant and primary school teachers will earn 838 euros more before the end of the course and 857 euros more in the case of secondary school teachers.

Still within the agreement with CCOO and UGT, the Government has also approved that from the next academic year, teachers who go on school trips will be compensated. The compensation will be 50 euros per night, for both teachers and educational support staff. An amount that the unions denounce as insufficient for the work done on these types of outings.