The Union of All Educational Professionals (STOP) will move forward in “different and creative ways” to deal with the minimum services set for the teachers’ strike, the coordinator of the union structure said this Saturday.
“We decided [avançar com] various and creative ways to continue this strike, even with minimal services,” said Andre Pestana, speaking in front of the entrance to the auditorium of the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra (CHUC), where more than a hundred representatives of trade union commissions and the strike this Saturday afternoon.
When asked by journalists about what these creative forms would be, the STOP coordinator replied that they would be carried out “within the law” and would become known “in due time”, stressing that sometimes “the surprise effect also has some influence.” “.
At the end of the meeting, teachers and non-teachers sang a few songs, promising not to give up the fight.
“We had people from the north to the south of the country, and what unites us here is not only the best conditions for those who work – teachers and non-teachers, but also for our students, our children and our grandchildren, hence this determination that will continue,” said the STOP coordinator.
There was also a desire at the meeting to hold a demonstration scheduled for February 11 to bring together non-pedagogical professionals from schools and their demands.
“We need to involve the entire educational community. We must invite parents and students,” said André Pestana.
The STOP coordinator needs not to return to the forms of struggle “of the last forty years”, “with professors on the one hand and non-teachers on the other.”
“It only led us to defeat,” he stressed, believing that “everyone who works in it” provides a quality public school.
Asked how long the indefinite strike, which began on December 9 and had already been notified by February 24, lasted, André Pestana stressed that the decision was up to teachers and non-teaching professionals.
“When educators and non-educators decide to end this strike or think the minister has given in on something significant, we will have no problem stopping,” he stressed.
André Pestana also criticized the government for “always having billions of euros for bankers and public-private partnerships”.
“Banks are making record profits, and the population of Portugal remembers very well that a few years ago, when banks were losing money, we had to share the losses among the entire population of shareholders, when these millions are needed in public schools, in healthcare. in public services,” he stressed.