Classes start this Monday in eight provinces, including the City of Buenos Aires, and some of them will be affected by the
teaching strike
called by the Ctera union at the national level.
The measure will be accompanied by mobilizations and takes place despite the fact that the Government called a table to discuss the minimum wage.
The unions demand parity and the sending of items for the Teacher Incentive Fund (Fonid), which had been suspended.
According to the official school calendar, the jurisdictions in which the 2024 school year begins are – in addition to CABA – Córdoba, Corrientes, Entre Ríos, Formosa, Mendoza, San Luis and Santa Fe. The Province of Buenos Aires starts classes on the 1 March °.
The strike called by Ctera was voted on last Thursday in an extraordinary congress with representatives from all over the country, where they warned about "the serious situation that public education is going through in its provinces."
The unions had been insisting on the need to carry out a
joint body at the national level with the Government
, but President Javier Milei and other officials rejected that it could be carried out by delegating responsibility to the provinces.
However, finally the Government summoned the Ministers of Education of all the provinces and the teaching unions with national representation to the headquarters of the Ministry of Labor next Tuesday the 27th at 6 p.m. to agree on new salaries.
CTERA announced a national teacher strike.
CTERA Press Photo
The Ctera - a second-level entity that belongs to the CTA and brings together the unions from all the provinces - anticipated that they will be present at the meeting even though it lacks the formality of a joint meeting and that the proposal made there will be analyzed by the union representatives the next day.
"We are going to go the same because we are interested in discussing and that is what we have been demanding. Then, on Wednesday we are going to evaluate what happens in the plenary meeting with general secretaries from all over the country," reported the union secretary, Sonia Alesso.
After learning of the call from the Executive, four national teaching unions attached to the CGT left the national strike
that was going to take place this Monday
on hold .
The decision was adopted by the Argentine Union of Private Teachers (Sadop), the Argentine Teachers' Union (UDA), the Association of Technical Teaching Teachers (AMET) and the Confederation of Argentine Educators (CEA), since they hope that the meeting will be framed in the national parity law and that the government listens to the claims of the sector.
"Until then, we remain in a state of alert and mobilization," they expressed in a statement, where they reiterated their demands and the possibility that the call could be a delaying maneuver.
In fact, the meeting will take place one day after the start date of the school year, scheduled in more than a third of the country for next Monday.
On the other hand, the schools of La Rioja, meanwhile, will begin classes on Tuesday;
in Santa Cruz they will begin on Thursday and on Friday, March 1, the provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Tierra del Fuego and Tucumán will do so.
The calendar will be completed with the start of classes on Monday, March 4 in Chaco, Chubut, Misiones, San Juan, Santiago del Estero, Catamarca and Neuquén, to which are added Jujuy and Salta, which were going to start this Monday but postponed the date.
For its part, Río Negro will begin its school year on March 11, after a period of intensification that took place from February 14 to 26, it was officially reported.
Strike in the City
In the City of Buenos Aires, the teachers grouped in Ctera and the Buenos Aires union Ademys have already confirmed their participation in the strike, despite the fact that the City Government announced that the day will be discounted.
"On Monday there will be classes and the day will be discounted for teachers who go on strike
," warned the head of Government, Jorge Macri, and the vice head of Government of the city of Buenos Aires, Clara Muzzio, despite the confirmation of the measure of strength by Ctera and Ademys.
Macri said that in the City there will not be strong support for the strike.
“Of the 17 unions in the City, only one says that it is going to join the strike, so there should be no problems at the beginning of the school year,” said Macri.
“As it is
an illegal strike
, we are going to deduct the work day for those who join;
He who does not go to work does not get paid, it is a strike that is illegal,” he remarked.
And he said he did not understand the decision: "They have said that they would join the strike in support of the rest of the country, it is ridiculous, the work is here, it is paid here and the kids are here."
Clara Muzzio, the deputy head of the Government of Buenos Aires, assured that
the doors of the schools will be open to receive the students.
“Salary discussions should take place with the kids in the classrooms.
We cannot allow their right to education to be violated in the midst of an educational emergency.
In Argentina, 5 out of 10 third graders do not understand the texts they read
,” she said.
In the rest of the country
Meanwhile, the Union of Educators of the Province of Córdoba (Uepc), which brings together the state teachers of that State, decided to "go to the national strike and mobilization on Monday", while the private teachers unions will carry out normal activity.
In Santa Fe, the state (Amsafe) and private (Sadop) teacher unions announced that they will not start classes this Monday - as planned -, rejecting the salary increase proposed by Maximiliano Pullaro's government of 7% starting in March .
A similar position of rejection of the salary offer with strike and mobilization starting next week was adopted by the private teachers union.
The teaching unions of Corrientes, San Luis and Mendoza also called for a strike at the beginning of the school year.
In Formosa, Governor Gildo Insfrán will inaugurate the school year this Monday in a school in the Laishí Department, while the provincial Teachers' Autoconvocados union announced its support for the Ctera strike "but taking our provincial demand and demanding that the national centers and unions continue to fighting actions," he indicated.
Entre Ríos educators from the Entre Ríos Teachers' Union Association (Agmer) and the Argentine Union of Private Teachers (Sadop) announced their support for Monday's national strike and denounced "harassment and persecution" by the provincial government.
MG