Nursery school educators mobilize in Palma to demand labor improvements

PalmaHundreds of people demonstrated this Tuesday through the streets of the center of Palma to demand an improvement in the working conditions in the Early Childhood Education sector for 0 to 3 year olds. The protest, framed within the state strike of nursery school educators, has traveled through various points in the center of Ciutat to make visible a conflict that remains deadlocked.

The mobilization began in Plaça de Cort and ended in Plaça d’Espanya, with a stop in Plaça Major, where the participants held a protest sit-in. During the march, the demonstrators, many wearing yellow t-shirts and carrying banners, chanted slogans to demand their own collective agreement and progress in the negotiation of their working conditions.

According to the organizing unions, the strike day had an approximate follow-up of 30% among workers in the Balearic Islands. The collective denounces that, despite the importance of their work at a key stage for child development, they continue to suffer low wages and a lack of professional recognition.

Among the main demands are salary increases, a reduction in class ratios, and an equalization of conditions with other educational sectors. The workers warn that the situation has been dragging on for years and that, far from improving, it continues to generate precariousness within a service they consider essential.

The protest coincides with open negotiations between unions and employers' associations, talks that, at this time, have not allowed the conflict to be resolved. The Balearic Government reiterated this Tuesday that it is a labor dispute that the involved parties must resolve and has ruled out direct intervention.

This position, however, has been criticized by both unions and sector platforms, which demand greater involvement from administrations. They consider that the weight of public funds in the financing of nursery schools justifies more active action to resolve demands that, they assure, directly affect the quality of the service.

The educators have already warned that, if there are no advances in the coming weeks, they will maintain mobilizations to pressure the negotiation.