On the day that teachers’ unions and the Ministry of Education (ME) once again sit down at the same table for a new union meeting, the leader of the Union of All Education Professionals (Stop), André Pestana, announced a new march of teachers in Lisbon. The protest is scheduled for the 25th of this month, Saturday, and “will connect the Palace of Justice to the official residence of the prime minister”, said the unionist this Friday.
André Pestana spoke to journalists at the entrance to this morning’s meeting and made it known that the demonstration was approved this Thursday “by hundreds of union and strike commissions”.
“We are not going to stop in the face of the continued intransigence by the ME to the main demands of teachers and non-teachers, in the face of this successive attack on the right to strike”, he explained. Symbolically, education professionals will “bury the democratic and quality school” in front of the Assembly of the Republic.
The Prime Minister, António Costa, ruled out, in an interview with TVI this Thursday, the possibility of recovering the six years of frozen service time for teachers. Regarding these statements, André Pestana said that the amounts in question are “peanuts” compared “with what the Portuguese know has been put in place to cover bankers’ holes”.
As for the negotiation with the Ministry of Education, the unionist defended that the negotiation is based on “a public document that does not respond to any of the main claims”. “It is not a question of optimism or pessimism. It is realism. In the face of all the demonstrations, all the marches, in the face of all the struggle, this Government is absolutely intransigent.”