Objective: to “give visibility to teachers’ demands” for next legislature
With the nation’s political parties in the ‘final leg’ of campaigning ahead of legislative elections in just under two weeks’ time, Portugal’s teachers have launched their own caravan of street actions, to give visibility to their demands so that the next government acts on them swiftly.
To be fair, both principal political forces (and their potential supporters) have said it is high time teachers’ demands were met, in phases – PS Socialists have vowed to restore time frozen (which the previous PS government said could never be restored) in four years; PSD social democrats have put the time scale at five years.
But teachers are clearly not falling for ‘easy words’ which in the heat of an election race. Today’s initiative is the brainchild of FENPROF (the national federation of teachers), and it is set to take place in all district capitals and autonomous regions for the next 10 working days.
From north to south, in two districts a day, always at 10am and 3pm, teachers have agreed to gather in plenary sessions and circulate four petitions (which already have the necessary signatures to be discussed in the next legislature): on careers, job insecurity, working conditions and pensions.
Today, demonstrations will take place in Viana do Castelo in the morning and in Braga in the afternoon.
The theme of this first day is teachers’ working conditions, where “the abuses and illegalities of working hours, the overload of bureaucratic work and the excessive number of pupils per class stand out”, emphasises FENPROF in a statement.
In internal meetings, the FENPROF unions have come to the conclusion that it would be much better for teachers (possibly every sector) if there is no absolute majority emerging from March 10. When one considers that the absolute majority of PS Socialists last February unravelled so spectacularly over the course of a deeply troubled year, it is easy to see that the need for ‘dialogue’ and agreement between parties would be preferable.
FENPROF’s deliberations however have also stressed that the growth of the extreme right (CHEGA) is “very negative”.
The federation’s unions have approved a list of demands which it means to hand over to the country’s political parties. Objectives go beyond the recovery of length of service, writes Lusa.
“Valuing the profession, strengthening public school resources and increasing public funding for education are the main lines of the document.
“Raising salaries, eliminating precariousness, regularising working hours, creating specific retirement and sickness mobility schemes and ensuring respect for trade union rights are once again some of the main demands”.
Source material: LUSA
