Development: On 29 September Uruguay’s President Tabaré Vázquez called for parents to support his battle with the local teachers’ unions by sending their children to school.
Significance: According to some calculations Montevideo secondary school students have missed as many as 29 days of classes due the protests and strikes against low pay and poor working conditions staged by the local unions. This has led to the political opposition in congress to go on the attack, accusing the government of not being in charge of the education sector, leaving it to the unions to call the shots. But yesterday, the director-general of secondary education, Celsa Puente, insisted that 70% of teachers had returned to work.
- Speaking on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City, Vázquez said, “the government is going to guarantee that study centres remain open”. The President’s remarks irritated the leadership of the country’s main umbrella union, Plenario Intersindical de Trabajadores–Convención Nacional de Trabajadores (Pit-Cnt), which hours earlier had threatened further “major demonstrations” bringing “thousands” of workers out onto the streets to demand that the government increases the education budget from 4.7% of GDP to 6% in its 2015-2020 draft budget that is now being debated by congress.
- The president of the Pit-Cnt, Fernando Pereira, said that Vázquez’s comments “were not helpful in the current climate”. Pereira lamented the fact the government appeared to be focusing on the strike actions, such as the occupation of the national education council (Codicen) building, rather than the substance of the teachers’ claims. Pereira accused the government of attempting to criminalise the protests, following the arrest of 12 strikers yesterday.
Looking Ahead: There are no signs that the strike is likely to end soon. Yesterday the main teachers’ union in Montevideo (Ades) said that it plans to continue with its strike until the government addresses its demands.
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