Teachers of public schools and institutes throughout Catalonia are called to strike this Tuesday, May 12, the first of three days planned throughout the territory. The protest, called by USTEC-STEs, ASPEPC-sps, CGT and Intersindical, arrives with a central demonstration in Barcelona and with two new dates already set for May 27 and June 5.
The strike begins while the Generalitat tries to reopen dialogue and, at the same time, the unions escalate the conflict over the infiltration of two Mossos d'Esquadra agents into a teaching assembly. This double tension, labor negotiation on one hand and the judicial route on the other, has marked the start of the mobilization.
The protest will go through Barcelona from Urquinaona to Sant Jaume
The unitary demonstration called by the unions will begin at 12:00 PM in plaça d'Urquinaona and will end in plaça de Sant Jaume. Before that, two columns will leave at 10:30 AM from plaça d'Espanya and from the Clot station to converge in the center of Barcelona.
Tuesday's strike opens a calendar of five days of mobilization. To the three Catalan-level calls, scheduled for May 12 and 27 and June 5, two more of a territorial nature in Barcelonès are added, set for May 18 and June 2.
Nursery schools already went on strike on May 7.
USTEC-STEs, ASPEPC-sps, CGT and Intersindical demand that the Government renegotiate improvements for the staff and educational centers. The organizers also reproach that the Executive closed a pact with CCOO and UGT without incorporating their demands, despite presenting themselves as majority unions in public education.
Niubó summons the sectoral table while USTEC and CGT prepare the judicial route
In full escalation of the conflict, the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, has called a meeting of the sectoral table for this Thursday. The head of the department has assured that she "extends her hand" to the organizing unions to "share ways to redirect the situation".
The meeting comes amid controversy over the presence of two agents of the Mossos d'Esquadra infiltrated in a teachers' assembly, an episode that has widened the clash between the Department of Education and part of the union representation beyond working conditions.
Two undercover agents burst into the educational conflict.
USTEC-STEs has announced that it will take this case to court and that it demands the resignation of councilor Parlon. CGT is also working to judicialize the infiltration, so the dispute opened this Tuesday combines the front of sectoral negotiation with another of judicial scope.
The sectoral meeting convened by Esther Niubó is set for this Thursday, two days after the first general teacher strike of the calendar.