The meeting between the Government of the Principality of Asturias and the teaching trade unions came to an end this Monday after a little over two hours without reaching an agreement between the parties. The unions have been very critical of the Government, which has called for a new meeting next Wednesday at four in the afternoon, a move considered by the unions as an attempt to prolong the process and «wear down the teaching staff.» «The Government is playing with fire,» they warned.
This was stated by the union representatives, ANPE, CCOO, Suatea, and CSIF, after the meeting with the Vice President of the Asturian Government, Gimena Llamedo, and the Minister of Finance, Guillermo Peláez, following the resignation of the Minister of Education, Lydia Espina.
The unions have demanded that Adrián Barbón «show his face, come out once and for all» and take the lead in the negotiations. They have denounced that despite proposing the necessary breaks to reach an agreement, or at least the beginning of one, the Government has remained stubborn and postponed the next negotiating meeting to Wednesday, extending the strike, which was in its fifth day today, for at least two more days.
ANPE’s Gumersindo Rodríguez warned the Administration that with this «delaying maneuver» they are «playing with fire» and expressed hope that «the Principality gets its act together right away.»
«We don’t understand. Right now, the Principality is focusing a lot on the economic issue, but the economic issue is not just the teachers’ salaries, which are indeed significantly lower than in other regions, but above all the need to invest, the need for investment in areas such as the ones I just mentioned, reducing bureaucracy, class sizes, etc.,» said Rodríguez.
In this regard, the general secretary of the Teaching Union of CCOO Asturias, Borja Llorente, emphasized that they left the meeting «completely disappointed» and lamented the lack of any proposal from the Administration. «They come with empty hands,» he criticized.
At the same time, he made a public appeal to the Asturian teaching staff to join the strike again «despite the abusive minimum services that prevented thousands of secondary school teachers from participating today,» he emphasized.
He highlighted that despite these minimum services, the strike continues to be a «success» and called for continuing «the fight» until the Administration presents a proposal.
On the other hand, he criticized being called to the next meeting on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. «With all the irresponsibility in the world, they are going to make us spend two more days with the Asturian education system paralyzed,» he reproached the Asturian Government.
Suatea’s representative, Miguel Laria, stressed that the proposal from the teachers and trade unions has been «clear for some time now,» so he rejected the excuse used by the Principality to study demands they were not aware of.
«We empathize with the teachers but we have no choice but to endure. There has been no progress, only setbacks,» said Laria, who assured that he has no doubt that the teaching staff will continue to endure.
The secretary of the education sector of UGT Asturias, Cristobal Puente, also stated that the Government is «playing with fire» and expressed that UGT does not understand this position from a Government that «should be the most progressive in Asturias.»
«That excuse that they need to study the demands made by the trade unions in more depth doesn’t make sense. We reiterate, these are historical demands that anyone in the Ministry of Education is aware of,» Puente pointed out.
In the same vein, Jorge Caro from CSIF lamented that the meeting was like «Groundhog Day,» without a single proposal, and criticized the socialist government for seeming to «want to revive the best tradition of hunger purges from 100 years ago and starve the Asturian teachers so that they do not continue with the strike, because otherwise, it doesn’t make sense.»
«Despite the demonstrations all week and yesterday’s demonstration, it seems that in the Government of the Principality of Asturias, there is no one with the sensibility to understand the seriousness of the situation,» he said.
FUENTE
