The majority teaching unions, led by Ustec, have warned this Monday of the “escalation of the conflict” if the Government does not attend the bilateral meeting called on Tuesday, after the PSC Executive has summoned them to negotiate at the sectoral table on Thursday together with CC.OO. and UGT.
In a joint statement, Ustec, Aspepc -the secondary school teachers-, CGT and Intersindical have described as “irresponsible” the Government’s refusal to meet on Tuesday at the University of Barcelona (UB) after the massive protest last Friday, which brought together some 35,000 people in the streets of Barcelona.
He councilor of the Presidency Albert Dalmau will not attend that meeting and will maintain his plan to convene this Thursday the Education sector table in which the leaders of the ministry will meet with the spokespersons of the five unions represented. USTEC, CC OO, UGT, ASPEC –the secondary school teachers union- and the CGT. The counselor’s intention is to meet separately with each of the unions in the afternoon. The Government has maintained for days that it is a historic agreement, that teachers have the right to protest but that the improvements must be based on a principle of reality
On the other hand, Ustec and the other critical unions have regretted that the Government “intends to ignore” their request for an urgent meeting after the mobilizations and refers them to an ordinary sectoral table “as if the current situation were normal.”
Likewise, they consider the Government’s appeal to preserve the institutional spaces for negotiation “grotesque”, maintaining that it was the Government itself that “undermined” the sectoral table by recently closing an agreement with CC.OO. and UGT, outside the union majority.
In this sense, they recall that said pact was signed on the same day that a meeting of this body was held, which they interpret as a lack of respect for the collective bargaining framework.
The organizations that called last week’s strike maintain that the current situation responds to a “crisis generated by the Government itself” and emphasize that the high participation in the strikes and the mobilization in the streets show that this is not an ordinary phase of negotiation.
For this reason, they insist that the only way out is through a rectification by the Government and they hold the meeting this Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the UB.
