Teachers have taken to the streets again this Tuesday in Barcelona in a new day of strike throughout Catalonia, the first of the mobilization cycle of the third quarter. The demonstration started at half past twelve in Plaça Urquinaona and is expected to end in Plaça Sant Jaume.
The protest arrives as the unions USTEC, Professors de Secundària, CGT and Intersindical demand that the Department of Education reopen negotiations with concrete proposals. The main friction is in the content of those negotiations, because the organizers demand a salary increase above that agreed with CCOO and UGT and more resources for classrooms.
Unions demand reopening negotiations with a raise higher than agreed upon
The mobilization is going through the center of Barcelona in a new tug-of-war between a part of the teaching staff and the educational administration. The organizers focus on working conditions and the resources of the schools, two demands that once again unite the salary protest with the situation in the classrooms.
During the march, the protesters chant slogans against the priority of public spending and in defense of basic services. Among the slogans that have been heard are Military spending for schools and hospitals and also Fighting, fighting we are also educating.
Another of the chants repeated in the demonstration has been Oleleolala, we are going to burn the Departament. The protest, called throughout Catalonia, opens a new phase of union pressure in the third quarter.
Education summons the conveners on Thursday at the sectoral table
While the demonstration advances towards Plaça Sant Jaume, the Department of Education has already set a next meeting with the unions. The ministry has called the sectoral table for Thursday, in full continuity of the conflict opened by the economic and material conditions of the educational system.
The meeting comes after USTEC, Professors de Secundària, CGT, and Intersindical demanded concrete proposals and not just a formal reopening of dialogue. They are concentrating a large part of the pressure at that point, because they are asking for a salary increase higher than that agreed with CCOO and UGT and more resources for classrooms.
The meeting of the sectoral table convened by the Department of Education is scheduled for Thursday.