Around 400 educators and workers from early childhood schools for ages 0 to 3 demonstrated this Thursday in Tarragona. It was the collective's first day of strike to demand labor improvements and resources.
The protest began at noon in the Font square. The route crossed the city center until it reached Imperial Tàrraco square. There the participants read a manifesto with their main demands.
Workers denounce abusive ratios in classrooms
Glòria Fernández, spokesperson for the Plataforma 0 a 3, demanded a structural change in the sector. She assured that the minimum services set for this strike are abusive and unjustified for an essential service.
"We want a structural change and a change of perspective for 0-3 because we exist" - Glòria Fernández, spokesperson for the 0 to 3 Platform
Fernández described the situation in the sector as very precarious. He stressed the need for more specialized personnel given the increase in children with special educational needs in classrooms.
Méritxell Levis works at the El Riuet de Coma-ruga municipal nursery school in El Vendrell. She explained that her center has two classes of 20 children each attended by a single educator. They also manage three more classrooms for children aged one to two years and the baby room.
"We are very tired of the precariousness to which we are subjected" - Méritxell Levis, worker at the municipal nursery school El Riuet
Levis expressed the powerlessness she feels at not being able to care for the children as she deems necessary. Arriving home unwell is common for many professionals in the sector, according to her testimony.
Salary Disparity Among the Five Management Models
The professionals have been demanding improvements since 2004. They denounce the existence of five different management models that generate significant salary and labor inequalities.
These differences depend on whether the centers are owned by the Generalitat de Catalunya, by the city councils, or have outsourced management. Thaís, an employee at the Terrossets de Calafell nursery school, denounced the high ratios at her center.
"We want to achieve more dignity for the children as well as for the workers" - Thaís, employee at the Terrossets de Calafell nursery school
Celeste Serna works as a traveling educator in several schools in Tarragona. She pointed out that the usual ratio remains one educator per 20 children despite municipal attempts to improve the allocation.
Serna stated that they cannot cope with the current workload. He demanded decent wages for all workers regardless of whether their contract is private or municipal.
The platform demands the freeness and universality of the service. Its final objective is to integrate these schools into the public system under the same conditions as the rest of regulated education.
The slogans chanted during the march included slogans such as "we are not nurseries, we are education". They also protested against the invisibility of the sector with phrases such as "early childhood education teachers in danger of extinction".