FSLI president Simion Gancescu said on Sunday ahead of consultations organized by the government with education unions that the announced strike would take place on Monday.

The leaders of the two major unions in the field of pre-university education, Simion Hencescu and Marius Nistor, say that governors are responsible for the situation in which the education system has found itself. “The offer will reach the people. People decide. We cannot make a decision today,” Hencescu said.

He noted that no one will put up with the fact that the Government only approves salary increases for novice teachers, while the incomes of other teaching staff stagnate. Trade unions support the idea that the Government should take into account salary increases for those who have work experience.

“No one agrees to give this allowance to a newbie and give three lei to someone with a long experience. We are not going into percentages now, we are waiting for what the government will come up with, we may be surprised when they tell us that it is impossible. There will be a strike tomorrow. The strike is not ours, it is the people’s, they signed up for the strike, they decide whether to continue the strike or not,” said the FSLI leader.

For his part, the president of the Education Federation “Spiru Haret” Marius Nistor, who is also participating in discussions with the government on Sunday, says that the strike is not “against an individual”, the union leaders. He is skeptical that a decision to abandon the strike can be made by Monday,

“It’s the same procedure: it’s not a strike by an individual, it’s not a strike started by union leaders, it’s a strike that started based on a referendum involving educators, not just unions. Based on the proposal that will come from the Government, if they consider it credible, they will decide by signing whether to abandon this form of protest or to continue it,” said Marius Nistor.

He says that it is not about blackmail from the teachers, but “blackmail from the managers”, who were informed since December that there would be a protest action in education.

“Now they have the audacity to blame the education workers for this strike to begin? No! The responsibility lies entirely with them. On the other hand, this policy of separation, raising parents and students against teachers, is a policy that cannot be accepted in any form. With such practices, they actually brought education to the situation in which it is now,” says Nistor. (News, ro)