Second day of teachers’ 48-hour walkout affecting almost 5 million children in the province of Buenos Aires continues as tensions between the government of Daniel Scioli and education unions escalate.
For the sixth time in less than a month, BA province teachers have launched a new strike rejecting the 22.6 per cent salary increase decreed by the provincial administration and that now considers the possibility of dictating the mandatory conciliation ratifying its position that there will be no further wage offer.
Meanwhile, head of the Buenos Aires Education Workers Union (SUTEBA) Roberto Baradel said attendance to the new walkout has been “massive and forceful” and considered teachers’ claims are “simple» calling for “a fair increase for education workers.»
«The 22.6 per cent they offered is a lying figure for 2013 because it will finish to come effective next year. What the government of the province is offering es a 12.5 per cent as for March during 6 months that will reach the 19.5 per cent” in the last trimester of this year, Baradel stated.
The unionized front of education workers have also launched an “education caravan” that will tour through several provincial districts arriving in La Plata City where teachers will rally to the government house.
On her behalf, Education and Culture Director Nora de Lucía demanded union leaders “not to hold children hostages” and urged them to take their claims “to classrooms, teaching.»
“From the provincial state, we have made three offers. An offer was made, 15 days were requested to dialogue and they were 15 days of force measures,” the official said.
But Baradel echoed de Lucía’s statments and hit rapidly back affirming that negotiations would continue and classes resumed if Scioli’s administration “improves” the salary offer, heating up a conflict that seems to have reached a deadlock in negotiations.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald