From the beginning of the 2022-2023 academic year – I won’t say university, because the academic environment helped to the mass trade union movements in pre-university school – the big trade union federations in education lobbied, threatened and forced what they wanted. Both the Spiru Kharet FSP and the FSLI, the most consistent trade union organizations in education, mobilized dues-paying members on the ground and staged repeated pickets that continue to this day.

On May 10, 2023, teachers and other school workers gathered in front of the Government building and in a mass march, protesting loudly, went to Calea Victoriei. Unfortunately, the media presented the whole event in an unnatural, i.e., manipulative and falsified form of an incident initiated by a few sympathizers or members of the UPR who entered into conflict with law enforcement agencies, forgetting to emphasize the noticeable presence of personnel employed by education, who had nothing to do with directed activity and purpose of the AUR political party at that time and place. On May 17, 2023, all units of pre-university education in Romania started a two-hour Japanese strike from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Again, the information did not become national news. The technique of building consensus through silence and false agendas has become prominent in the national media. On May 22, 2023, a general strike in pre-university education began. Principals of educational institutions were obliged to send an anonymous list of workers who are on strike or conducting activities to district and branch inspectorates every day, despite the fact that the law provides for direct notification of territorial labor inspectorates in such special situations. In other words, we know exactly how many workers were on strike or not in each training unit dynamically. On May 25, May 30 and June 9, 2023, tens of thousands of teachers took part in protest marches in Bucharest and in the country along pre-agreed and approved routes surrounded by the gendarmerie. After repeated negotiations between trade union organizations and representatives of the authorities, they came to the conclusion about raising wages (and not only) for education workers, provided for by GEO No. 10. 53/2023, which became an emergency government order no. 57/2023 on the establishment of measures for remuneration of personnel of the national public education system, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, part I, no. 514/2023. Speaking in monetary terms, the general strike brought the following material benefits, taken from the joint statement of the two main trade union organizations of the pre-university education system: “a) increase in the basic salary of the 0th class of teaching staff (teaching, management and control, teaching assistant) from 1,300 gross monthly lei instead of 1,000 (which means a percentage increase of 21% to 32%, the average increase is 25%, respectively, the net increase varies from about 760 lei to about 1,420 lei per month, depending on the classification and the corresponding salary increase) , and for non-teaching staff the same basic salary increase of 400 lei gross per month for the 0th grade (getting a net increase from about 230 lei to 280 lei per month; this increase is in addition to the 9% percentage that some teaching staff receive staff on the basis of GEO No. 45/2023, which provides the basic salaries provided for by the Framework Law No. 153/2017 for 2022) (…) b) providing an allowance for the career of teaching staff (including auxiliary teaching staff) in the amount of 1,500 lei net in October 2023 – for school use in 2023/2024, as well as for the following academic years, in accordance with the 2026/2027 academic year; also, for non-teaching staff, the provision of an allowance for a professional career within the annual amount of 500 lei/academic year for the same period”. Thus, the strike is likely to override existing union wage demands, which represent the demands of the majority of public education workers.

How did you feel about the strike in schools?

In the archipelago of islands of the public education system, for which decentralization means the lack of homogeneity of institutional attitudes (from schools in conflict to some built harmoniously or at least decently from the inside), you are unlikely to be able to draw a general conclusion. There were schools with a large presence of strikers and others where only a few workers took the strike seriously. There are districts where there was a large-scale protest, and others where background whistling was heard. We are talking about educational units where workers did not want to go on a protest march, even though they were on strike, as well as others where attendance in front of the Government or Victory Square reached 100%. Teachers met the strike with divided opinions. Salaries were reduced in accordance with the days of the strike in May, but due to poor communication, already substantiated, between inspectorates and school units on 19 May 2023, when the general strike was finally announced, there are contradictory circumstances that are easily explained: the principals were told that although the school is not closed and students can still attend school, parents are advised not to send their children to school because there are not enough teachers to complete classes on a regular schedule. This deliberate inaccuracy, most likely fueled by the unions in order to increase the initial percentage of strikers, led to a situation where teachers who did not declare a strike did not actually work on a special or known schedule with students in their classrooms, despite the fact that they received payment for work performed improperly or at all. To such an organizational division of the collective during the general strike, the management of the educational institutions adapted on the go, drawing up a specific work program, but the delay and vagueness of the entire procedure divided the teaching collectives of the schools into explaining the problem, which could have been avoided with a certain foresight and firmness in decision-making, which the culture of the Romanian state bureaucracy is still lacking.

How was the strike in inspections?

This did not happen, despite the fact that school inspectors, teachers and principals on the base, administrative staff are among the members of the union, pay daily dues, enjoy the protection of the union branch. In addition, the increase in wages achieved by the strike will eventually affect inspection workers as well. The activity of the inspectors during the almost three-week strike was reduced due to the inactivity of most school units in Romania. However, inspectors’ salaries are not cut in May, as inspectorates are legally linked to private sector employers.

How did the office understand the strike activity of trade unions?

This is an extremely difficult issue, as a large number of Romanian school staff have reacted differently to signals from national leaders in trade union organizations. In the first days, the strike was perceived cautiously, but after the first meetings, the teachers became more and more convinced of the legality of the trade union proposals and the need to fight in a union way. Union representatives at the local level generally agreed with the enthusiasm (or lack thereof) of the unit’s workers. After the first unsuccessful negotiations of the Government with national leaders, who questioned the adoption of a set of proposals regarding online groups after 7:00 pm and within a few tens of minutes before deadline, chosen by ear, the teachers, frustrated by hasty and alarmed hierarchical consultations, interpreted the whole organization as dishonest and tainted by trickery. On the one hand, many teachers understood that it is necessary to continue the strike and intensify the rallies, precisely because the national leaders are weak and do not conduct a decisive and clear dialogue, without concessions and side games, on the other hand, other professors and teaching staff confirmed the suspicion formed decades of experience in the department that the general strike is a pre-planned political arrangement between the trade union elite and the Romanian government, which aims either to obtain minor material benefits or to reject or delay the proposal of a new law on education, which does not have the support of all political formations in power . In the first half of 2023, the PSD has shown public reluctance to be able to promulgate the proposed Law in its current form, using the unions as a transmission belt for the general dissatisfaction with the system, which has escalated over the past three years since the COVID-19 pandemic. This was the impression of many knowledgeable employees of the state education system. From that moment, at the beginning of June 2023, it became clear that there is no strike fund prepared in time (trade unions are not at all transparent in the use of membership fees, and they are also strictly checked in this regard by state institutions), and compensation for strike days in one way or another is not seriously discussed it was said that due to the fact that teachers will be charged salaries, in accordance with the law, most of the strikers began to voluntarily stop their protest activities, starting from the strike in percentages that are getting bigger and bigger. So far there is no firm, consistent and unblemished information on how the dues members were consulted, with clear percentages and actual consultations on the suspension of the general strike, but evidence can be found if it exists and if, of course, they wished to clarify the matter and withdraw any suspicions. Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro