The educators of the nursery schools protest in front of Parliament: "We are not a bargaining chip"

PalmaAround a hundred workers from nursery schools, called by the unions CCOO, UGT, and STEI, have started a new day of strike this Tuesday with a protest in front of the Parliament. There have been several gatherings in recent weeks at the doors of the regional Chamber, which in Tuesday's plenary session has once again debated the labor conflict caused in the 0-3 sector.

Almost a hundred people, dressed in the usual yellow t-shirts, gathered this morning in front of the Parliament building to start a new day of strike that will continue this afternoon with a demonstration through the streets of Palma. Around 09.30 they began to enter the autonomous Chamber, where a screen and dozens of chairs have been set up for them to follow the plenary session.

Vera reiterates the Government's willingness for an agreement to be signed

For its part, the Minister of Education, Antoni Vera, reiterated this Tuesday the Government's willingness to foster an agreement on the collective agreement for nursery schools for 0 to 3 year olds, although he insisted that the Executive is not part of collective bargaining nor is it legitimized to draft or sign the text. Vera responded in this way to a question posed in the plenary session of Parliament by socialist deputy Amanda Fernández on the labor conflict affecting the early childhood education sector for 0 to 3 year olds and the negotiation of a specific regional collective agreement for the Balearic Islands.

Understanding principle for salary equalizationAt the same time, she reproached the Government for attributing the situation to the previous regional Executive and the central Government, and warned that it cannot side with the employers in a conflict that affects the working conditions of educators in the first cycle of early childhood education.

Memorandum of understanding for salary equalization

The educators' protests come a day after the employers' associations Escola Catòlica de les Balears, Ceceib, and Feipimeb, and the unions USO and FSIE – the majority in subsidized education – reached an initial understanding for the salary equalization of the sector's employees through a regional agreement.

They did so in a meeting from which CCOO, UGT, and STEI walked out, understanding that the conditions of the nursery school sector should be addressed at other negotiation tables. Their proposal, which they have been defending for almost a year, is that these improvements be articulated through an autonomous collective agreement for the workers of non-integrated subsidized children's centers.

The 0-3 Network, representing the striking educators, pointed out this morning that the main obstacle to advancing a solution is not a lack of will but the "repeated refusal" by employers to open a dedicated negotiation space for the sector.

On the other hand, unions have pointed out, companies insist that any negotiation must take place at a table that, according to them, "does not represent the reality of the entire 0-3 sector", because USO and FSIE "do not have the necessary representativeness to negotiate the conditions of the sector".

The 0-3 Network has also rejected "any discourse that presents the workers" of the nursery schools as "negotiating instruments or that suggests that the mobilizations are imposed".

"Educators are not bargaining chips nor is anyone dragging us into a strike. The mobilizations are the result of years of invisibility, precariousness, and lack of responses from employers and different administrations," she maintained.