Next Thursday, March 29, a General Strike is called. In the Canary Islands, it has focused on the withdrawal of the labor reform and against social exclusion. The situation of poverty and social exclusion that we suffer in ...
Next Thursday, March 29, a General Strike is called. In the Canary Islands, it has focused on the withdrawal of the labor reform and against social exclusion.
The situation of poverty and social exclusion that we suffer in the Canary Islands is something we experience very closely in our schools, and it is increasingly unsustainable: unemployment reaches 31 percent, 15.5 percent of Canarian households have all their members unemployed, one in two young people is unemployed, more than half of employed people earn less than 1,000 euros?
Therefore, I have been surprised to hear some colleagues say that they are not going to participate in this strike because this reform does not affect them, because we are privileged to have a job, or because it will not serve any purpose?
I find it hard to understand that there is any Canarian teacher who would let the opportunity pass to demonstrate their rejection of the measures that the Popular Party government has put in place, and those it plans to develop after the approval of the budgets on March 30, which are a further step in its policy of impositions, cutting labor rights and dismantling public education.
I respect the final decision of each person, but even so I cannot repress the need to make some reflections on this call and share them, especially with my colleagues at work and in projects, of illusions and hopes, who are still not clear what to do on Thursday, March 29; daring to ask them to look inside themselves for the conscience, vitality, reason, confidence, optimism that they have tried to steal from us and to recover them in this day of unity and struggle of the citizens, in defense of democracy.
The General Strike is the most important tool that we workers have to claim our rights, the most powerful tool that we citizens have to show our rejection of the policies put in place in recent months by the PP, policies that are deepening the suppression of labor and social rights and the dismantling of public services. The General Strike is the most powerful tool by which all those affected by social cuts and the loss of collective rights can say loudly ENOUGH! It is the tool with which we can demand that our labor and social rights, those of our students, those of our sons and daughters, do not deteriorate further.
I will join the General Strike on March 29 and attend the demonstration called in Santa Cruz de Tenerife at 6 p.m., for many reasons:
Because it is not true that our job is secured by being civil servants. Our company (the State) has changed our working conditions without any negotiation: it has lowered our salary three times since 2010, has considerably increased our workload, has deteriorated our labor rights, has sent many temporary colleagues to unemployment?. And the forecast, with the 2012 budgets, is that things will get worse. With the cuts made and those to come, the deterioration of working conditions and the dismantling and privatization of public services are assured. Do we really not have more than enough reasons to support the general strike on March 29?
Because, although we currently have a job and a fixed salary, this call for a strike is not only to defend teachers, or public services -which too-, but to demonstrate that we do not agree with the deterioration of the working conditions of people who have much worse conditions than ours. For our parents, our brothers and sisters, our sons and daughters, our friends, our students? Let's ask ourselves, is it certain that this labor reform does not affect anyone close to us?
Because if we cannot afford to have a day's strike deducted from our pay, how are we going to face the reduction in our salary that, after this labor reform, the 2012 budgets will bring for civil servants? If we massively supported the strike on March 29, I am sure that Mr. Rajoy's government would think about the measures to be taken. If this does not happen, we are giving them "carte blanche" for the following measures to fall on us, as has already happened in Greece or Portugal: thousands of civil servants on the street. Are we going to be able to afford that? If we think about it, every euro that is deducted from us on March 29 is an investment for our future, for the safeguarding of our jobs and for the defense of the public education service.
Because history tells me, although some people maintain that the strike will not serve any purpose, that all the rights that workers, teachers, have achieved, has been through struggle. None of the rights achieved have been given to us. On the contrary, what has been demonstrated is that what is useless is "doing nothing". The strike is an instrument that we still have in our hands.
Is it going to overturn the labor reform?, is it going to prevent the 2012 budgets from being unpopular? We cannot say it categorically. It is just one more step, but a very important one. If we do not support the strike, we will be giving arguments to the Popular Party government to say that "it continues with its measures because the citizens understand and support them". The millions of unemployed people are, unfortunately, the best demonstration that "doing nothing" does not guarantee the job, the salary, or the rights. If they end the labor and social rights won over decades, and we do nothing, what can we expect from the next measures taken by this government?
Because one of the key objectives of education is to educate citizens, that is, people capable of analyzing the society in which they live, of forming their own idea about their reality, and of acting constructively on it. Students learn much more from what we do than from what we say. We must be an example with our practice. We often complain that our students are very "apathetic" and comfortable? Wouldn't this be a good opportunity to teach them with our practice the defense of justice and the value of solidarity?
But, I am going to go on strike on March 29, above all, for my dignity as a worker, as a citizen and as a person. I do not want to feel ashamed when my children or my students ask me what I did to stop this aggression against the rights conquered over decades. I am not going to allow them to trample on me without offering resistance. Respect for my dignity as a worker was understood to be in my employment contract, and that labor laws would defend it. Respect for my dignity as a citizen and person was presumed to be protected by the Magna Carta. All of them have become wet paper. Can anyone who wants to be respected remain impassive? I, of course, NO.
Mary C. Bolaños Espinosa, teacher and member of the STEC-Intersindical Canaria
