Nursery schools throughout Catalonia are called to a new day of strike on Wednesday, May 20, the second in a few days and the first to bring together public, subsidized, and private centers. In L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, where municipal workers already demonstrated on May 7, the strike comes amid a conflict over working conditions and the state of several facilities.
The protest occurs while the municipality expects to incorporate five subsidized nursery schools into the public network, an expansion that clashes with complaints of a lack of resources and deterioration in already operating centers. The local assembly maintains that staffing will not see changes until the City Council updates the specifications that regulate private companies managing the nurseries and opens a new tender.
Workers link the strike to the delay in new specifications
In L'Hospitalet, municipal nursery schools have organized an assembly to demand labor and service improvements. The main focus of the conflict is the delay in the new specifications, documents that set the labor framework for the awarded companies.
The workers have already submitted a manifesto to the council with their demands and argue that without this update, there will be no real changes in staffing. The local mobilization comes after the protest on May 7 and is now part of a Catalonia-wide call that unites the three educational networks for the first time.
Núria Vilardebó, a member of the L'Hospitalet Nursery School Assembly, also places the conflict within the educational framework for the zero to three-year-old stage. In her words, the sector suffers from widespread precariousness in both working conditions and facilities.
"We are not considered part of education" - Núria Vilardebó, member of the L'Hospitalet Nursery School Assembly
The assembly warns of cracks and doubts about taking on five more centers
The assembly denounces the poor condition of the buildings in several centers in L'Hospitalet. Among the problems described are widespread cracks and the risk of falling walls or ceilings.
To that situation is added the forecast that five subsidized nursery schools will move to the municipal public network. The organization questions whether the City Council can absorb these centers without increasing available resources, at a time when it is already requesting improvements in facilities and working conditions.
Vilardebó claims full recognition of the 0-3 stage as part of the educational system. The representative also defends that this phase has a decisive weight in the early years of life, a demand that the staff have placed at the center of the protest.
"We want to be part of this educational stage, which we believe is also the most important when we are so small" - Núria Vilardebó, member of the Assemblea d'Escoles Bressol de L'Hospitalet
After the strike on May 20, the mobilizations will continue with new actions on May 26 and with a request to intervene in the municipal plenary session. Núria Vilardebó warned that they will maintain the protests until they receive a response to all demands and even suggested street closures if there is no progress.