The coordinator of the Union of All Educational Professionals (STOP) this Saturday urged the thousands of demonstrators who were present at the protest in Lisbon to stop next week and “close schools from the north to the south of the country.”
“In the next two days, before minimum services, we are going to stop and close schools from the north to the south of the country. We will not be silent. We don’t stop,” shouted André Pestana during a speech delivered in front of the Belém Palace, where there are thousands of teachers and non-teaching staff.
“The united school will never be defeated” was the slogan of André Pestana, the union’s coordinator who launched a school strike in December that will last until February.
On Friday, the ministry unveiled a decision to introduce minimum services in schools from February 1, Wednesday. Therefore, STOP is calling on school officials to intensify the fight for the first two days of next week.
Saturday’s demonstration, André Pestana said, “was the largest ever,” claiming that “more than one hundred thousand people” took part in it: “If at the last demonstration (which took place two weeks ago) the police said that we but there were a hundred thousand of us, imagine how many of us there are today, when the police say that there are about 80 thousand of us.”
Teachers and non-teaching staff are demanding better working conditions and wages. STOP is asking that all people working in schools receive a €120 supplement to cope with the rising cost of living.
In addition to the STOP protests, strikes continue, organized by SIPE and the eight-union platform, which includes the two largest trade union structures in education: the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof) and the National Federation of Education (FNE).
One of the reasons for the protests is related to the proposal of the Ministry of Education for a new model for the selection and placement of teachers.
Last week, the ministry and unions held a third round of negotiations on a new recruitment model that ended without agreement.
The concentration began around 13:00 in front of the Ministry of Education and ended at 18:30 with demonstrators chanting “No Stop” and “Victory”.
A representative group of demonstrators was received at Belém Palace by former education minister and current education adviser Isabel Alzada, who took note of the demands, André Pestana said.