“We have to return in September with the full force we have used thus far. Let’s start on the first day of classes and we will do everything so that there are no classes under the trade union law, not with a strike, no more financial effort, [but] with meetings across the whole country, with the distribution of a text to the population,” Mario Nogueira told dozens of demonstrators.
This fight will continue, the unionist warned, in the week of 5 October, World Teacher’s Day, “with a week of strikes from Monday to Thursday, because Friday is a holiday,” although the, “strike model has yet to be set out.”
“We have not yet looked at whether it will be a four-day strike for everyone, or whether it will be another model, but this is the decisive week in negotiations between the parties and the State Budget for 2019, because there must be funding for the first moment of recovery of the years worked,” he warned.
Nogueira was speaking at a rally scheduled to await the arrival of the Assistant Secretary of State of Education in the municipality of São Pedro do Sul, to sign a protocol.
Alexandra Leitão, however, arrived earlier than scheduled, which the trade unionist considered to be “cowardly.”
“It is a pity that we have officials who, as we have seen today, have political cowardice in their genes,” Nogueira said, regretting that the secretary of state did not tell the people present whether or not she was committed to solving the problem.
This comes after it was confirmed that the Portuguese teachers’ strike on student assessments and grading will continue until 31 July, but now only called by the Union of All Teachers (S.T.O.P), after the platform of ten trade union structures ended its strike last Friday.
According to the leader of the S.T.O.P. union, André Pestana, there are already more than 100 schools that have expressed their willingness to continue with the strike, albeit partially, focused only on the class councils of some school years.
Strikes on year-end grading and assessments have been ongoing since June.
S.T.O.P. previously warned of a strike on meetings as of 4 June, which affected the first final assessments, which focused on students in years that take national exams and final exams.
Between 18 June and 13 July, there was also a grading and assessment strike convened by a platform of ten trade unions, including the two federations (Fenprof and FNE).
In the middle of the first week of July, teachers were obliged to comply with the minimum services decreed by an arbitration college, to ensure that students in examination years would have their internal grades posted before their exam results were released.
Thousands of class councils - final assessment meetings for grading - have yet to be held.