The president of the Federation of Free Trade Unions in Education (FSLI), Simion Hencescu, said on Monday that Prime Minister Nicolae Cuke’s call for teachers to return to their classrooms would only increase the number of strikers. He also stated that the solution to the conflict would be for the government to prepare a regulation that would increase the salary compared to the salary law, according to News.ro.

“We have nothing more than what happened yesterday in the government. The dates are the same. (..) This is the situation. Unfortunately, I realized that tonight the Prime Minister gave a message to the teachers to go to classes. In my opinion, this message will only increase the number of strikers,” Simion Hencescu told Prima News’ “Country Project: Romania” program.

He showed that “people do not believe promises.”

“The signal was that they removed the article from the wage law that deals with wages, then people turned on the light and said: wait, this is a thorn,” Hencescu said.

On the resolution of the conflict, the FSLI representative said that yesterday they also asked the Government to prepare a regulation to increase the salary in advance compared to the salary law, which they are threatening to prioritize.

“To implement what the President of Romania also said, inflation was high, wages were low to cover the sharp drop in the purchasing power of those studying,” said Simion Hencescu.

Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke called on Monday for education workers who began a general strike on Monday to return to the department “especially at this extremely important time for students”.

Chuke sent the message as he “welcomes” the Senate’s approval of new education laws.

It will be recalled that the education unions started a general strike in schools on Monday after negotiations with the government failed to reach an agreement on Sunday. Unions say a general strike in education will continue until they receive a “certain solution” from the Government on pay demands. The last general strike in education took place 18 years ago and lasted three weeks. Now the trade unions want a beginner teacher to have a salary of 4,000 lei, and a teacher at the end of his career to receive 7,000 lei.