UGT SP Madrid Enseñanza has responded to the attacks by Isabel Díaz Ayuso against the teachers participating in the strike for public education. The union rejects the Madrid president linking the protests with violence and reminds that teachers are exercising a constitutional right to defend their working conditions.
The organization also denounces that the request for negotiation made two months ago continues unanswered by the Ministry of Education and the regional Executive.
Their reaction comes after the Madrid president stated this Monday, coinciding with a concentration before an event she was attending in Madrid: “The education of everyone's children is in the hands of people this violent who do not even respect the right of children to go to school.”
In this regard, the union expresses its opposition to Ayuso's words and considers that their effects reach all public education professionals, beyond those who support the strike. “From UGT SP Madrid Enseñanza, we frontally reject the erroneous and premeditatedly harmful characterization that Isabel Díaz Ayuso has made of the public education teachers of the Community of Madrid who are supporting the strike, and by extension, of the entire teaching collective,” states the organization.
Against these disqualifications, UGT defends that workers are making use of “a constitutional, legitimate and fundamental right (that of exercising a strike).” It adds that they exercise it to protect their working conditions, which it considers deteriorated by the decisions of the regional Government.
“This is a strike in defense of labor rights”
The organization also rejects the political interpretation that Ayuso makes of the call. “Furthermore, we totally repudiate the characterization she makes of this strike; according to her words, of a political nature,” they point out.
UGT places the reasons for the strike in the working conditions of teachers and the needs of public education in Madrid: “This is a strike in defense of the labor rights of public education workers, which must be urgently improved, and a request for improvement of non-university public education in Madrid.”
The mobilizations include demands such as the reduction of students per classroom, fewer teaching hours, salary improvements, and an increase in educational resources.
The union response also focuses on the willingness of the convening committee to reach agreements. "The negotiating attitude of the convening strike committee is beyond doubt," UGT maintains. As they explain, two months ago the Ministry of Education and the regional Government were urged to negotiate in good faith the points included in the strike's arguments. The organization emphasizes that this willingness to dialogue remains in effect.
However, it denounces that the administrations addressed have not yet responded: "An offer, on the other hand, that to date has not received a response from the Ministry of Education, and the Regional Government."
