Unionized teachers extended a strike for 48 hours and said the government of the Buenos Aires province had not called them to continue negotiations. Governo Scioli asked teachers unions to resume classes.
Unionized teachers’ leader Roberto Baradel warned that the education row in the province of Buenos Aires “has been prolonged too much,” urging the Daniel Scioli administration to improve salary offers and “settle” the conflict.
In a press conference, the member of the Teachers Union Front detailed the wage improvement presented by the provincial government: 12.5 percent till October when teachers will then reach a 19-percent hike. The improvement, he complaint, accounts only for an increase of “little more than 300 pesos.”
In that sense, Baradel questioned the recent 26.5-percent salary agreements reached with other state workers unions. “It means the province is in conditions to settle the conflict,” he insisted and reaffirmed that negotiations “are not closed.” “Teachers’ collective bargaining can not be closed without the agreement of both parties; there is no such unilateral mechanism to close negotiations,” he said.
The also head of the Buenos Aires Eduaction Workers Union (SUTEBA in Spanish) denounced that the provincial Labour Minister sent inspectors to schools to “intimidate and tell directors they were not allowed to join the strike.”
“Intimidations and discount threats do not help to settle the conflict; the conflict is to be resolved considering teachers and recognizing their work,” he stated.
With a 95-percent walkout attendance that has left thousands of students without classes in Argentina’s most populated district for the 10th time this year, Baradel said teachers are already considering another 48-hour action plan if Scioli’s government does not meet unions’ demands.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald