Education unions have announced that the teachers’ strike will continue until their demands for pay and the “future of education” are resolved. They say the government’s response to their protest “leads us to believe that they will go back to the old ways after this strike is over.”

According to the press release of the main federations of trade unions in the field of education, the main requirements are:

• establishing by law that the salary of a beginning teacher must be at least equal to the average gross salary in the economy
• application of the tariff grid for education in a term shorter than the three years announced by the Government
• the salary increase is even higher than in the decree issued the other day
• From January 1, 2024, provision of at least 15% of the expenditures of the consolidated budget for education

“Stop scolding us, stop sending us to classes! Change the language and start from the fact that education will become a national priority from today,” say the trade unions.

Press release of trade unionists:

“The Federation of Free Trade Unions in Education and the Federation of Trade Unions in Education “SPIRU HARET” on behalf of the education workers, whose rights and interests they represent, continue to ask the Government and governing bodies to adopt through a regulatory act, the article removed from the Law on Pre-University Education and which was also not included in the text of GEO 53/2023, but only in the explanatory note of the Decree, according to which the salary of a beginning teacher must be at least equal to the gross average salary in the economy, the salary of the entire teaching staff is carried out progressively, in relation to the position, training , seniority and scientific degree.

This attitude of the Romanian government is interpreted as the failure of the executive power to apply the above-mentioned principle in the new salary law.

Please note that the striking education workers are also dissatisfied with the Government’s promise to apply the hypothetical wage scale for education after a maximum of three years, demanding a reduction in this period.

We note that the wage increase provided for in GEO 53/2023 was also rejected by the union federations after consultation with the striking union members who considered the amounts insufficient.

As I said from the beginning, this strike is not just about wages. This extreme protest is also about the future of education, about society’s perception of the teaching profession.

However, the way the Government and the leaders of the ruling political parties have managed the events that have taken place since May 10, 2023 (the first rally organized by the education workers) and until now, makes us believe that after this strike is over, they will go back to their old ways, that is: they and in the future, they will not invest in education and education workers.

Here, politicians, Mr. President, is the problem. You have not convinced us that you will actually invest in this area after the strike is over.

And the first example in this sense – you did not provide by the regulatory act that with the appearance of the new law on salaries, the salary of a beginner teacher will be at least equal to the average salary in the economy.

We will also remind you that one of the items on which the colleagues signed up for the strike is an increase in funding.

You did not vote for anything in the parliament for the law, which provides for the allocation of funding for education in the amount of at least 15% of the expenditures of the consolidated budget, if you do not intend to implement it and continue the application of this article, as you have stretched it, for more than 10 years, the article about allocation of 6% of GDP for education.

We are saying this because we have already learned from sources that from January 1, 2024 you will not provide what is provided for in the Law on Pre-University Education, because the budget does not allow these “expenditures”.

But you have 6 months to prepare. You have 6 months, during which you can reform the state in such a way that from January 1, 2024, at least 15% of the consolidated budget expenditures will be allocated to education.

We need education, and education needs funding! Stop scolding us, stop sending us to classes! Change your language and assume that education will become a national priority from now on!

And not only for us, the system workers, but also for more than 3,000,000 students, behind whom you are hiding and who you are trying to turn against us with your statements!”