Los four teachers unions of the city of Buenos Aires will finalize tomorrow a paro general in rejection of “employment rights abuse” committed by the Buenos Aires government since education became a campaign axis for the candidacy of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. “They want to make the teachers pay for the holiday for the assassination attempt against the vice president” Cristina Kirchner, questioned the head of UTE-Ctera, Edward Lopez.
The straw that broke the camel’s back for the patience of UTE-Ctera, SADOP, ADEMyS and CAMyP was the unilateral decision of the ministry commanded by Soledad Acuña de move teacher training sessions to Saturdayscalled Spaces for Institutional Improvement (EMI), which historically take place on weekdays.
With this and other decisions made in recent weeks, the administration of Together for Change made a “outrage of the labor rights historically conquered by the workers”said a statement.
The holiday for the attack on CFK and the opportunism of the PRO
Beyond the arguments of the PRO management about its supposed vocation not to make the children miss school days, the truth is that the shift of training to non-working days for that union was ordered since the national government decreed a national holiday on september 2.
“This began when there was a holiday due to the attempted assassination of Cristina Kirchner. They want to make the teachers pay for that holiday and make them go on Saturdays so that they ‘recover’ that day that Rodríguez Larreta himself described as ‘lost,'” he told Page 12 the head of UTE-Ctera, Eduardo Lopez.
This Thursday’s strike “for the respect of our working day”for “salaries that recognize our role as professionals” and “for democratic dialogue spaces” will not have a central mobilization but decentralized activities in different educational institutions, such as public classes, traffic lights, assemblies and hugs to school buildings.
“They chose teachers as political opponents”
The force measurement is also the product of a debate given in plenary sessions held by the different union entities where, beyond some nuances, male and female teachers rejected the decision to “recover” that holiday. But it is also the consequence of a long series of “provocations” that the Acuña administration launched in supposed favor of education.
Some of them are the change in curriculum designthe advancement of the school year 2023, the establishment of the teaching competitions on Saturdayswhen historically they are carried out on working days (Monday to Friday), and modification of the scheme for securitization.
“They chose teachers as political opponents, who are a sector that they cannot bend, buy or trample on”criticized López and questioned Rodríguez Larreta’s strategy of centralizing measures in the area of Education “as the axis of his campaign and because that is what the focus groups indicate.”
“Every right-wing government attacks education”
The leader pointed out that all the measures taken by the PRO government against teachers have one characteristic: “Every right-wing government attacks education”.
Education “is a sector that expands rights, promotes social advancement and does not see knowledge as a commodity,” said López. “That’s why,” she added. it is logical that they invest more in tiles than in education. Tiles can be trampled, education cannot”.
To the list of rejections and questions that the unions made to Together for Change when deciding tomorrow’s strike, a long series of requests was added: reopening of a table for discuss salaries and increases in number of vacancies “because 55 thousand boys were left out” of schooling.
They also demand recomposition and expansion of the social work benefits teacher, school construction in the most unprotected neighborhoods, titling of teachers and extension of chargessecure micros for activities outside of school and participation in tertiary level curriculaamong some.
all these pending subjects are done “while the head of government gives conferences in which he pretends that he is interested in education”Lopez criticized. “Rodríguez Larreta talks about the schools because that is what the focus groups tell him to do and because, of course, we all want the kids to go to study; but he does it because garpa electorally”, he concluded.