Trade unionists are accused of striking in favor of the PSD or in favor of the PNL, but this protest was caused by grievances accumulated over 30 years, which led to underfunding in the education system, the president of the Federation of Education Trade Unions “Spiru Haret” said on Monday, Marius Nistor, who also spoke of the “positive signal” that teachers expect from governors.

• “Recently, both Mr. Cholaku and Mr. Chuke, and not only that, all kinds of experts on social movements and education issues asked an urgent question: “Why are you striking right now, when the government is changing, when the situation in the country is very delicate?”,
• Some come and accuse us of “strike in favor of PSD”, others of “strike in favor of PNL”. Our message is very clear: we are not striking for PSD, PNL, or any party. We are not interested in such things.
• It is about grievances accumulated in the system for more than 30 years, it is about the underfunding of the system, it is about the social status of the personnel working in the system of pre-university education, the limit has been reached, and the political class, unfortunately, is not satisfied with the trust in our colleagues,” he said. Marius Nistor on Monday in Prima News.

Asked what was discussed at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, the union leader said the prime minister’s intervention at the start of talks, which was “very quickly” reported in the media, had sparked a backlash from teachers in the country.

• “Colleagues in the country told us to convey to the Government that they are not on social assistance, they are asking for a decent salary.
• When we talk about decent pay, we mean all categories of non-teaching staff, teaching staff, assistants, teaching staff, colleagues who occupy managerial, managerial and supervisory positions. At some point there was a conversation about the salary scale that we discussed with the Ministry of Education, the decent salary scale, the salary scale that belongs to the Ministry of Labor, and some started to argue that there are very high costs for the Romanian Government cannot afford to implement something similar,” said a trade union leader quoted by News.ro.

“Do you know how much a teacher in Germany earns annually?”

He compared how much a teacher earns in Romania and in Germany:

• “And then I asked them the following: if we implement this grid and a teacher with more than 40 years of experience, with a long-term higher education, will end up receiving 7,000 lei per month, what will the annual income mean? About 16,800 euros.
• And I mean a teacher from Germany, do you know how much he makes a year? 60,000 euros. That’s the difference between us and them, we still stick to the limit considering the GDP of Germany and the GDP of Romania, but we can’t accept the idea that we have to keep teachers on a ridiculous salary.
• We also hire non-teaching staff – 1900 lei salary per month. Auxiliary teaching staff – 3200 – 3500 – secretary, accountant. This is unacceptable. We hire teaching staff from 2,500 lei with bonuses, meals and everything else. A teacher with a pedagogic degree II who receives 3,500 lei after 25 years.”

The union leader also says governors will expect pressure on teachers from parents and students if the strike lasts longer.

“It would be a positive signal”

• “If they want to send a positive signal, today the Senate is cutting a legislative package to re-introduce that article that clearly says that the salary of a new graduate with a college degree must be equivalent to the average salary in the economy. This will be a positive signal. (…)
• Do you know what he is counting on next? Whether they will take us to court or not, if they allow the strike to continue, the strike will continue as long as our colleagues want it, they are the only ones who can refuse it.
• I believe that if this goes on too long, there will be tremendous pressure from parents and students on teachers, and this is how we deal with this situation with pre-university education. This is a big mistake, because it means that we are laying the groundwork for the future of this country,” Marius Nistor also stated.

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.

The 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.