-They believe it aims to halt parliamentary initiatives to the LOE that would improve the situation of temporary teachers, and they denounce that it has been signed behind the backs of the workers and without considering the true improvements demanded
The Confederation of Trade Unions of Education Workers of the Canary Islands - Intersindical Canaria (STES-IC) has strongly discredited the agreement announced by Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO) with the Ministry of Education and Science (MEC), in which, in addition to CC.OO, which is holding an assembly tomorrow, the unions UGT, CSIF, ANPE, and USO would have signed an agreement on socio-labor conditions of teachers within the framework of the processing and development of the LOE.
A "shameful and disastrous" agreement
The STEC, which describes this agreement as "shameful, disastrous, and executed behind the backs of the workers" because they do not know or have not commented on its terms, has flatly denied that the mobilizations organized in Lanzarote for tomorrow, Wednesday, October 26, or the state-wide strike scheduled for November 16 will be called off. STEC, EA-Canarias, Insucan, and SEPCA are participating in these mobilizations.
As will be recalled, José Campos, general secretary of the Federation of Education of CC.OO, remarked last Friday in a statement that after the mobilizations initiated in all provinces before the government sub-delegations, "although the signed agreement does not fully reflect all our demands, it has managed to shift the initial positions of the Administration towards the content of the union platform," so the "mobilizations were called off."
Two union blocs
According to the spokesperson for the STEC, Francisco Morales Arencibia, on Monday, in none of the ten sections contained in the agreement - "a shameful content without real improvements" - referring to retirements, continuing education, reduced hourly and salary for those over 55, or promotion of teachers, are significant advances included on what the draft of the Organic Law of Education (LOE) says, "although an ambiguous wording has been sought tending to confuse teachers," a project on which the STEC has contributed up to 116 amendments.
Morales denounced the announcement of the signing of the agreement "when the parliamentary process of presenting amendments to said draft Law has not yet finished, - which culminates today, the 25th - practices to which "unfortunately they have us accustomed".
The first draft agreement was sent by the undersecretary of the MEC to the union organizations "last Friday, October 14, and on the 19th the meeting of the Sectoral Table took place to assess it. And this same day the negotiation was closed and approved, so we can affirm that there has been no negotiation through legally established channels, and that the counter-proposals presented have not been adequately assessed or answered," they remark in an official statement.
Better conditions without layoffs for temporary teachers
STEC, EA-Canarias, and Insucan agree in pointing out that the aforementioned agreement, described as "historic" by CC.OO, does not contemplate the demand for differentiated access to the teaching public function advocated for years by temporary and substitute teachers.
The new form of access to education, which has been reduced to an exam that will continue to count more than the practical experience of the workers themselves, represents a setback for the Canarian unions on the initial proposal, since it will seriously harm them if the objective of reducing the percentage of temporary teachers from the current 20% to the 8% that appears in the agreement is met, because that would mean the dismissal of a large number of them.
EA-Canarias understands that measures must be taken to allow access to public education for new graduates, yes, without this access implying the loss of jobs for current temporary and substitute teachers or the worsening of their working conditions.
According to Francisco Morales (STEC), with that single test contemplated in the seventh point of the ten of the agreement, no one would benefit, but also, instead of affecting about 80,000 teachers it would only be applicable to about 32,000 in the Islands, a number that instead of 6,000 would be reduced to about 2,400 throughout the island of Lanzarote.
In addition, the unions denounce that the supplementary remuneration of 60 euros that is cited in the agreement will affect "a few and arbitrarily." "It is a declaration of intentions, given that in the economic report that accompanies the LOE there is no amount for this section. On the other hand, this supplement is not general for all teachers, which will mean, if the communities decide to pay it, a clear discrimination of some teachers and others."
Regarding the negotiations of the Teaching Statute with the Ministry of Education, they say they are tired of waiting years and do not understand that before seeking a consensus on this matter there is a prior agreement regarding the Statute of Public Function.
"This section is a promise from the MEC that we have been hearing for too many years and whose content is yet to be specified," they insist.
The aforementioned unions describe as "shameful these signatures that aim to stop parliamentary improvements to the LOE." In summary, for STEC, EA-Canarias, and Insucan, organizations "surprised by the compatibility of the signature and the call to the rancid manifestation of the educational right," this agreement "for its null content, signs the contempt of the educational administration and of the organizations that support it towards the teachers when processing the new education law." Therefore, they consider that other unions have "betrayed their usual demands in favor of temporary teachers on the same day that they were called to mobilize."
From the Confederation of STES-I, it will be proposed to the parliamentary groups, and "in particular to the socialist," that they comply with the electoral program with which they presented themselves to the elections and propose real improvements to the working conditions of teachers, insisting on the 116 amendments proposed to try to change and substantially improve the LOE project.
"Temporary teachers must continue and expand their mobilizations and strikes to ensure that Parliament supports their differentiated access to the teaching public function, as the only way to solve the serious problem they suffer. And to the entire teaching staff we are going to present and explain the content and scope of this bad agreement and propose that they mobilize so that the new Law includes authentic measures that serve to strengthen public schools and to improve working conditions in education," they stated.
WHAT THE UNIONS ASK FOR
-The extraordinary call would only solve the problem for part of the group and only for this moment. Leaving the rest who did not approve the extraordinary call unemployed. In any case, it should be accompanied by the modification mentioned above.
-End the job instability of temporary and substitute teachers that negatively affects the public education system and the working conditions of more than 6,000 teachers in the Canary Islands (more than 4,000 in vacancies throughout the course and more than 2,000 who perform temporary substitutions). We demand job stability.
-That the LOE includes in its concretion the definitive solution to the problem of temporary and substitute teachers. We demand an immediate solution within that legal framework, an extreme highly demanded by all organizations since the debate on educational reform began.
-The solution must contemplate a change in the model of access to the Teaching Public Function. We propose the need for the new Organic Law of Education to include differentiated access for the group of temporary and substitute teachers.