What's behind the biggest teachers' strike in the last fifteen years?

BarcelonaMassive, historic, or resounding are just some of the adjectives used to describe this week's strike in the education sector. After years of limited mobilization, this February many teachers have said enough is enough and made their discontent with the system known with more than 70,000 professionals demonstrating across the country and a strike supported by almost half of all teachers (40.94%), according to the government's figures, and 85% by the teachers themselves.

"I don't recall such widespread interest in strikes and such large-scale participation in the streets since the Maragall era," acknowledges Enric Prats, PhD in Pedagogy from the Faculty of Education at the University of Barcelona (UB), who has spent years visiting schools and institutes. At that time – between 2008 and 2009, with the PSC in power – however, the reason for the mobilizations was discontent with the Catalan Education Law (LEC). Despite the protests, the law was passed. However, for several years its implementation was shelved, and today, almost 20 years later, there are still sections pending application.

This week, however, the strike was to demand a general salary increase (to equalize the conditions of Catalan teachers with those in the rest of Spain), a reduction in classroom sizes (some secondary school classes have 30 students), and more investment in inclusive education – one in three students needs educational support. "It all boils down to one word: exhaustion," says Prats, who maintains that "the salary issue isn't the most important; rather, the conditions in the classrooms are inadequate, and there's a lack of support." For now, the protest has prompted action from the government, which will present a new proposal to the unions next week that, according to the executive branch, should mark "a turning point."

The advance of the calendar

In the last two decades, the third largest teacher mobilization occurred in 2022, when Josep González-Cambray (ERC) was Minister of Education. The reason was very specific: opposition to the early start of the school calendar, which meant the school year would begin before September 11th. The proposal sparked several days of strikes, the largest of which saw 33% of teachers participate. "The decision generated a lot of rejection because it was made without considering the real needs of the schools and the opinions of teachers were not taken into account," says Prat. However, despite the strong mobilization, the early start of the school year was eventually implemented, although the exact date for returning to the classroom changed from year to year. Also from the Cambray era, we must remember the large demonstrations to protect Catalan in schools, following the court ruling that forced the Generalitat (Catalan government) to mandate 25% Spanish instruction. Up to 35,000 people demonstrated in Barcelona, ​​called by 54 cultural and educational organizations grouped under the Somescola umbrella. However, despite the massive street protest, the outcry did not translate into widespread participation in the strikes—it barely reached 6%—called in the education sector.

The cuts

Finally, the other teachers' strikes that saw the most significant participation—around 25% of teachers joined them—took place in 2012 and 2013. With Minister Irene Rigau (CIU) at the head of the department, the economic crisis translated into a context of severe cuts in the public sector, especially in education. Some of these cuts are still being felt today, although they have been reversed in recent years. However, restoring these cuts was one of the main demands of teachers' unions after the pandemic. In fact, this very Wednesday, in the midst of the teachers' strike, the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, linked the loss of teachers' purchasing power to the "cuts" made by Artur Mas's government.

The keys to the success of the current protest

Beyond denouncing the weaknesses of the education system, there are at least two other factors behind the success of this week's teachers' strike. Both the PhD in Pedagogy from the University of Barcelona and Iolanda Segura, spokesperson for Ustec, the largest union in the education sector, agree on one of them. "The protest has gone beyond the unions," Prats explains, while Segura also highlights the fact that "educational staff have organized themselves to be active agents in the fight for improved working conditions." The other determining factor has been the change in strategy by the unions. In this regard, one of the relevant points has been that in recent months most union organizations have acted in unison and, for example, called Wednesday's strike together. The other point, according to Segura, is that Ustec itself has rethought its approach. "We saw that after the Cambray era, the momentum had subsided and there was a certain sense of demobilization," admits the union spokesperson. In response, they conducted a study with surveys and interviews at each school to see what teachers' concerns were once the budget cuts were –almost– closed. Among the many conclusions of the study, published in 2024, Ustec found that the causes "that provoked the most discontent" were the need to reduce class sizes, the lack of staff for inclusive education, the excessive bureaucratic workload, and salaries. In other words, the four demands that appeared in the manifesto of this week's massive teachers' demonstration.