More than 500 teachers gathered this Friday in Viana do Castelo, in Republic Square, to show the government that the “tide” of opposition will not stop and will “destroy the system” until class demands are met.
“The teachers are the ones who decide if they want to stop. From what I see here and in other district strikes, no one wants to stop. The struggle will continue over time until the system falls apart. system and we will get what we want,” Luis Gomes told the Lusa news agency.
Luis Gomez, an elementary school teacher for 30 years, held up a banner that read “April in Education”. On black cardboard, the month of April, crowned with a carnation, is highlighted in red, and the word education is in green.
“A revolution in education is needed so that everyone can benefit from education and an acceptable standard of living,” he defended.
On the back of the poster, the 55-year-old teacher wrote: “For me, for you, for us, for students, for Portugal.”
The teacher joined his colleagues from schools in ten municipalities of the district of Viana do Castelo in a demonstration marked by speeches by trade union leaders, accompanied by slogans, applause, chants, whistles, tambourines and warnings to the government: “Costa, listen. in the fight.”
From the stairs of the fountain in Piazza della Repubblica, a makeshift performance stage, Nuno Fadigas of the Union of Teachers of the North (SPN) announced to the demonstrators that participation in the Viana no Castelo district schools in the strike exceeded 97%.
Speaking to Lusa, he said that his participation in the protest, which began in the morning, is “a very clear and unambiguous sign” that the protest “will not stop.”
“This is a wave that goes beyond the unions themselves. There were times when we [sindicatos] that we were ahead. Now we are accompanying teachers,” he said.
“We are no longer waiting. Now or never. As never before, there is no possibility, there is only now and this time it will be. It is impossible to stop this wave,” the teacher insisted.
For Francisco Gonçalves, coordinator of the SPN and assistant general secretary of the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), the demonstration in the capital Alto Miño represents “a demonstration of the discontent and demands of the teachers”, praising the mobilization for happening “after minimum services have been called in schools and after meeting on Thursday with the Ministry of Education, at which nothing significant was presented”
“This is an important response that the teachers of Viana do Castelo gave to the proposals of the Ministry of Education. The answer is clear. What was presented to us as a solution to teachers’ problems is unacceptable,” he said. , pointing to examples as “competitions that do not take into account professional graduation, in case contracted professors are tied”.
“In the case of teachers in the state, the creation of local boards of education, which will distribute services to teachers who do not have enough schedules, creates a kind of mega mega mega groups. This is unacceptable for teachers,” they noted.
Francisco Gonçalves stated that teachers are “ready for a fight that will be long”.
“The Ministry of Education should not think that teachers will go bankrupt. The demonstration they have shown here is that they do not go broke, that they are united in identifying problems and in the demands they make on the Ministry of Education. We are different, but we are united in the fight,” he said.
The union leader added that the new forms of struggle would be announced at the demonstration on the 11th of the following day.
“We will immediately stop the strikes if the main problems are resolved,” he said.
The strike in Viana do Castelo began at 8:30 am with a rally at the door of the Montserrat school cluster, followed by a march through the main arteries of the city, heading to the city park, where an education picnic was held.
The district strike was called by eight trade union organizations, the Allied Association of Licensed Teachers (ASPL), the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), the Pro-Ordem dos Professores – the Allied Association / Portuguese Federation of Teachers, the Union of Pedagogues and Licensed Teachers (Sepleu). , the National Union of Educational Professionals (Sinape), the National and Democratic Union of Teachers (Sindep), the Independent Union of Teachers and Educators (SIPE), and the National Union of Teachers Licensed by Polytechnics and Universities (Spliu).
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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