The 0-3 educators mobilize in Palma on the eve of the strike: "0-3 cannot wait any longer"

PalmThe strike in the 0-3 early childhood education sector, called for next May 7 in the Balearic Islands, anticipates significant participation, in a context of growing discontent among workers. This Monday, dozens of professionals gathered in front of the PIMEM headquarters in Palma to denounce the deadlock in negotiations and the lack of response from employers' associations.

The CCOO, UGT, and STEI unions have reinforced the call for the strike, which is part of a general state mobilization day, and have accused the employers' associations —PIMEM Escolete and CECEIB— of maintaining an attitude of “inability to move” and of “turning their backs” on the sector's workers.

According to the unions, the call comes after a cycle of increasing mobilizations and a “profound disappointment” with employers' associations, to whom they reproach a lack of negotiating will. Monday's protest is the prelude to the mobilizations planned for the 7th, which will take place at 6 p.m. in the Plaza de España in Palma, as well as in Ibiza and Ciutadella.

The unions insist that the objective of the strike is to make the sector's demands visible and move towards effective regulation. Among the main demands are the immediate negotiation of an autonomous collective agreement, the improvement of salaries —which they assure barely exceed the minimum—, the regulation of ratios, professional recognition of the 0-3 cycle within the educational system, and the reduction of job insecurity.

“The situation is unsustainable. We are talking about an essential, highly feminized sector that supports work-life balance and child development, but which continues in precarious conditions,” state the convoking organizations.

In parallel, the Ministry of Education has met with the unions to agree on the minimum services for the day, which remain pending publication in the BOIB. These foresee the presence of the center's management to guarantee its opening and one educator for every three units or fraction thereof.

The strike committees have accepted these conditions, despite initially advocating for more restrictive minimum services, at 25%, and have warned that these cannot empty the right to strike of its content. They have also pointed out that kitchen and cleaning staff are not included in these minimum services and will be able to exercise their right to join the strike.

The unions denounce that the current deadlock is due to a “total lack of negotiating will” on the part of the employers' associations and warn that, if there are no advances, the conflict could intensify in the coming weeks. “The 0-3 cannot wait any longer: regulating the sector is dignifying it,” they conclude.