Union division has altered the protest calendar for teachers in Catalonia before the consultation on the pre-agreement signed on Friday with the Department of Education concludes. USTEC-STEs and Professors de Secundària have called off the strikes planned until the results of the vote among teachers are known, while CGT, Intersindical, and COS maintain the mobilization and announced stoppages.
Tension is now focused on a consultation that could change the end of the school year. Although some of the majority unions have chosen to await the verdict of the ballot boxes, the organizations that reject the agreement maintain that the text does not specify the reduction of class sizes nor does it add budget for inclusive education, two of the points that had led to the conflict.
The consultation remains open and divides union strategy
The vote began this Monday with a single question directed at teaching staff about the pre-agreement of May 29 and will remain active until Thursday. If the result is negative, the commitment made by the conveners is to initiate an indefinite strike at the end of the school year.
Iolanda Segura, spokesperson for USTEC, and Laura Gené, general secretary of CGT Ensenyament, had already indicated that the result could be very close. Esther Niubó, Minister of Education, expressed her concern about a possible defeat of the pre-agreement and warned that this scenario would be, in her words, chaotic.
For now, the partial cancellation affects the territorial stoppages planned for June 3 in Tarragonès and Terres de l'Ebre and for June 4 in Lleida and Alt Pirineu, but only in the case of USTEC and Professors de Secundària. CGT, Intersindical, and COS maintain these calls, and the stoppage on June 5 continues to be announced until the result of the consultation is known.
The protest in Barcelona gathered very different figures depending on who counted them
The street confrontation was already visible on Tuesday in Barcelona, with a bike ride, the blockade of Casa Batlló, and a demonstration that started from Palau Robert and ended at the headquarters of the Consorci de Barcelona. The convening unions estimated the attendance at 8,000 people, and the Guàrdia Urbana reduced it to 1,000.
During the mobilization, several teachers summarized the discontent with a repeated phrase in the protest. We don't lack vocation, we lack hands, defended some of the teachers who supported the strike.
Íngrid Chavarria, spokesperson for the CGT, placed the conflict beyond salary improvement and linked it to the situation of the centers.
"We have not taken to the streets just for salary. We are in a situation of educational emergency" - Íngrid Chavarria, spokesperson, CGT
In that rejection of the pre-agreement, the organizing organizations insist that the text does not modify the funding allocated to inclusive education. Chavarria maintains that the planned amount is the same as that which appeared in the agreement of March 9, a criticism that is added to the shortcomings of inclusive education that the centers are experiencing.
Laia Fonts, from Intersindical, also questioned the lack of specificity regarding ratios and raised the dilemma between a limited economic improvement and a real decrease in students per classroom. From COS, a union representative rejected what he defined as crumbs and once again placed inclusive education and ratios at the center of the conflict, two demands that also appear in the debate on ratios in Catalonia.
The consultation to the teaching staff will remain open until Thursday with the literal question "Do you accept the pre-agreement for teaching staff of May 29?".