Educational strike: USTEC demands Illa to assume negotiation before the start of term

BarcelonaWith only twelve days left until the start of the school year, and a teacher's strike planned for the first day, September 8th, with little chance of being called off, the majority union USTEC has called for the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, to negotiate with them. "If the minister [Esther] Niubó does not want to or cannot get this negotiation on track, President Illa should take charge," said Iolanda Segura, the union's spokesperson, in a statement this Wednesday. She also warned that subsequent mobilizations will continue as long as there is no political response to their demands.

Since the teaching community at the beginning of June rejected the pre-agreement between the Department of Education and the majority of sector unions, the idea that the 2026-27 academic year will not start normally is practically a reality. USTEC has denounced in recent days the inaction of the department in resolving the conflict – it states that it has not been convened since July 13 – but on Tuesday the Government spokesperson, Sílvia Paneque, assured that the executive has worked "intensively" for "months and weeks", with more than 200 meetings. This Wednesday, the union has escalated its criticism: it considers that asking for "patience" from the education sector and referring to agreements rejected by the community is an "unacceptable" response.

In a statement, the organization has considered that the Government cannot consider the negotiation closed, because structural demands such as "ratios, educational inclusion, infrastructure, Catalan or the safeguarding of the public network" remain pending. "Partial improvements cannot be used to consider a conflict closed that remains alive in schools and that has structural demands on the table that have not been resolved," they state. In this regard, they assure that "what the education system needs is negotiation." And they insist: "If the Department of Education no longer sees itself as capable of negotiating, let the President of the Generalitat assume political responsibility and convene the trade union organizations.

"200 meetings do not replace negotiation"

USTEC positively values measures such as the increase in reception classrooms or the deployment of school nursing, but recalls that these measures are not new, but were already foreseen in the different advances negotiated in March and May. "200 meetings do not replace union negotiation: what is needed is more public spending to face the complexity in the classrooms," they insist.

According to the majority teachers' union, public spending on education in Catalonia (4.05%) remains below the state average (4.46%) and far from the 6% of GDP demanded by the educational community. It also warns that the problem is not just budgetary: the latest report from the ombudsman calculates the underfunding of the cost of school places in the public network at 429.9 million euros, with a deficit of 572.8 euros per primary student and 782.1 euros per secondary student.