Teachers unions will sit down with the María Eugenia Vidal government next week to discuss wage increases for teachers in Buenos Aires province, where a stand-off has already slashed several days from the 2018 school calendar.
Members of the Teachers Union Front (FUD) — which groups together several teachers unions — will sit down with Vidal government representatives at the province’s Economy Ministry in La Plata on Wednesday, Noticias Argentinas reported.
Buenos Aires province teachers rejected the latest proposal offered to them by the Vidal government of a 15-percent pay increase during 2018, which would be delivered in three instalments with a one-off $6,000-peso bonus for teachers with perfect attendance during the coming school year.
Teachers led a two-day strike at public schools in early March, complaining that the Vidal government’s offer falls far short of the 20-percent annual inflation that economists predict for 2018.
The provincial government counterattacked by cancelling pay for teachers who adhered to the strike.
Vidal's government has positioned itself as a victim of teachers unions that allegedly respond to partisan interests, particularly those of the political movement of former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
However the same unions led similar strikes and protests against the Daniel Scioli government when it was in power in Buenos Aires province. Scioli was aligned to the former president.
Vidal told the provincial Legislature in early March that her government wants to see teachers commit to greater attendance at work with an aim of securing long-term improvements in learning conditions for public school children.
-TIMES
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