The Union of All Education Professionals (Stop) today announced a week-long strike from 18-22 September, calling on workers to secure strike funds in schools.
«At the end of this week of strike, on the 22nd, Friday, we will organize a national demonstration of all education professionals, in Lisbon», said the leader of STOP, André Pestana, at a press conference in Coimbra.
The leader recalled that the teachers of the autonomous regions have already seen their claims about the accounting of the frozen service time being accepted, while those of the continue continue with more than six and a half years of time to recover.
“This cannot go on. If we do nothing, the next school year will continue with profound injustices in public schools», he defended, in a meeting with journalists on the street, next to the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, in which Carla Piedade, from the union’s leadership, also intervened.
«In addition to other injustices inherent to dynamic attachment (DV), today we also have many colleagues who have linked through the DV still without placement, which indicates that they may soon be teaching in more than one school group at the same time, with the confusion, the fatigue and expenses inherent», he said.
André Pestana recalled that professors on “mobility due to illness continue to be deeply disregarded, as well as colleagues in mono-teaching”. Also the operational assistants «are tired and exhausted».
«There are fewer and fewer operational assistants in schools, which compromises their physical and mental health and also the safety of students», warned the chairman of the STOP board.
Those professionals, he stressed, "are overloaded with extra work and the salary remains miserable, forcing them to have second jobs to manage to maintain a dignified life".
«In the midst of this, they continue in a comprehensive career and not in a specific career», he said, calling for participation in the five-day strike and in the demonstration in the capital, on 22 September.
For Stop, it is important «to look at these professionals once and for all and resolve their situation».
«We also need more technical assistants and higher and specialized technicians in schools to properly support our children, in particular those with special educational needs», claimed the union leader, stressing that these workers «deserve dignified wages and careers and with the right to be close to the family”.
In his opinion, «all this devaluation of those who work in public schools» continues to take place, which leads «once again many thousands of students to start this school year without a teacher or with people teaching classes without professional or pedagogical training », which «damages the quality of public schools and compromises the present and future of children and young people».
André Pestana urged teachers and other school workers to organize strike funds during the protest week, from 18 to 22 September, which, «as seen in the past, are 100% legal».
The platform of nine teachers' union organizations has also scheduled a strike for October 06, after World Teachers' Day, which is celebrated the day before.
As of September 12th, the first day of classes, strikes are also launched for overwork, overtime and all activities included in the non-teaching component of the establishment.
Comments