LatinNews Daily Report - 06 March 2014

POLITICS | Teachers go on national strike. On 5 March after failing to reach agreement with the government led by President Cristina Fernández over salary increases for this year, Argentina’s teachers began a 48-hour national strike. The strike was scheduled to coincide with the official start of classes across the country yesterday. In provinces where classes had already begun on 26 February, local teachers’ unions have already been striking. The main teacher’s union, Confederación de Trabajadores de la Educación (Ctera), says it is prepared to extend the strike to 72 hours if the government does not agree to its demands to radically improve its latest offer of a 25% base salary increase. The Fernández government is trying to avoid widespread social discontent before the official start of the collective salary negotiations later this month and has threatened to set the annual salary increase by decree if it can't reach a deal with the teachers. This was rejected by the Ctera, which lodged a formal complaint against any such action with the labour ministry. The labour ministry in turn rejected that complaint out of hand. According to local press reports, day one of the strike was observed in 90% of schools, with teachers in the five provinces in which salary deals have already been struck with provincial governments opting to support their colleagues. There have also been reports of violent clashes between demonstrating teachers and the police in Misiones province.

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