Teachers call a new cycle of strikes in schools starting from November

BarcelonaMobilizations in the school sector are returning. The Educational Assembly of Catalonia approved this Saturday a new cycle of strikes that will also extend until the second term of the school year. The first of the work stoppages is scheduled for November 26, three days before the general elections. They have also called a prior demonstration for November 21, and have issued a call for a general strike.

The assembly, which this Saturday held a debate among the entire educational collective (PAE, PAS, leisure, 0-3, preschool, primary, secondary and post-compulsory education, and interim staff), complains that the school year "continues the same" without resources for inclusion, bureaucracy, high ratios, job precariousness, and infrastructure, according to what they reported in a statement following the meeting. They criticized that the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, celebrates her "stability pact" for Catalan education with parliamentary groups, but refuses to engage in dialogue with the educational collective and refuses to convene the strike committee.

More resources, better salaries, and lower ratios

They assert that, since the Government has not made progress on any of their demands, their goals "still remain intact, but much more concrete, united and coordinated" with all the groups. Among their demands, they highlight the increase in resources for inclusive education, staffing, salaries and infrastructure; the lowering of educational ratios and bureaucracy; greater democracy in staff meetings and the reinforcement of resources in welcome classrooms to "guarantee" the immersion system.

"The fight continues"

The Educational Assembly has also stepped forward to address voices announcing that the collective is less mobilized than last school year. "Our fight will continue, despite the false statements by the PSC in some media outlets on Friday, October 23rd, which announced the demobilization of the collective, with a distorted interpretation of the latest consultation—full of technical problems that did not reach a large part of the collective due to the Department's poor management of emails," they state.

Yesterday it transpired that in the consultation—held this week by the unions USTEC, CGT, Intersindical, COS, CNT, and the Educational Assembly of Catalonia (AEC) itself—there were more teachers who do not want to go on strike again than those who are calling for a new day of work stoppages. Specifically, of the nearly 33,000 professionals who participated in the consultation—there are 96,000 in the system as a whole—16,358 stated that they were willing to strike. For all practical purposes, this implies that fewer than two out of every ten teachers would have indicated that they would want to support a new stoppage again.