50 schools closed due to school staff strike

Fifty schools are closed this Monday due to a strike by non-teaching workers, according to the first report of the National Union of Education Workers (Sinape), which states a membership of 65% of workers.

“We estimate that we have 65% support for the strike and we have information about 50 schools that are already closed,” Sinapa Secretary General Francisco Pinto told Lusa in a preliminary assessment carried out around 8:30 a.m.

Francisco Pinto spent the early morning receiving calls from school officials all over the country reporting the lineup of operational assistants, technical assistants and senior technicians.

“Schools are closed throughout the country, from Coimbra to Viseu or Almada. Here in Lisbon, for example, the Esa de Queiroz school, the Delfim Santos school, the Olivais school are closed…,” said the Secretary General of Sinape, outside the gates of the Escola EB 2,3 das Olaias school in Lisbon, where this Monday morning classes are also did not have.

The purpose of the strike is to become a “serious wake-up call for the authorities and political parties about the situation of non-teaching staff,” he explained, emphasizing that unstructured careers and low salaries were among the “many problems.”

The vast majority of operational assistants receive “nine euros more than the minimum wage” but “take home only 606.23 euros”: “These are people who work, but they are poor,” warned Francisco Pinto.

According to the union leader, “about 90% of operational assistants are at the equivalent of Step 1 level” and the vast majority of them have worked for many years, and in some cases they have been in schools for more than two decades.

Francisco Pinto also reported that the net income of level 1 technical assistants is 683.43 euros, and that of senior technical specialists is 918.68 euros.

Sinape chose the day before the presentation of the state budget to parliament to also warn about “inappropriate career boosters”, instability and the shortage of these specialists in schools, taking into account the real needs.

The strike by non-teaching staff came three days after a strike by teachers and educators called by the platform of nine trade unions of which Sinape is a member, as well as the National Federation of Education (FNE) and the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof).

This Monday’s strike is the third of the current school year, which began less than a month ago and included in the first few days a week-long strike called by the Union of All Education Professionals (STOP) and targeting teachers and lay people. Teaching Staff.