Fenprof maintains teachers’ strike and threatens Government with “strong opposition” – Portugal

The National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof) announced this Friday that it will maintain ongoing strikes, warning the next government that it will “count on strong opposition” from teachers if it “intends to weaken public schools”.

“In convergence with the other eight trade union associations, strikes will be maintained for overtime, overwork and non-teaching hours of establishment”, announced today Mário Nogueira, general secretary of Fenprof, at the end of the national secretariat meeting. Teachers have been going on strike since the beginning of the school year as a form of protest against the extra hours they work each week, explained the leader of the federation, who recently released a national survey that revealed that teachers worked, on average, more 50 hours per week.

Mário Nogueira suggested that the next Government begin by addressing, “along with the recovery of service time and the review of the mobility regime due to illness, the conditions of working hours”.

In an assessment of last Sunday’s electoral results, which “everything indicates that it will be a PSD Government, with the support of the CDS and IL”, Fenprof warned the future executive not to “put public schools at risk”.

Mário Nogueira pointed out as one of the red lines the reinforcement of association contracts with private educational establishments that “did not fill the school with students, but filled the pockets of many owners with millions of euros”.

At Fenprof headquarters, the only name mentioned as a possible Minister of Education is Alexandre Homem Cristo, former parliamentary advisor in the Assembly of the Republic.

“If it happened there, it would be a bad sign. It has nothing to do with the person, it has to do with the policy they defend, which is privatization. If the next government aims to weaken public schools in the name of interests from others, it will face strong opposition from us”, warned Mário Nogueira.

Also the results obtained by Chega, which elected 48 deputies, “concern Fenprof”, which accuses the party of calling into question “fundamental rules of democracy” and of showing “intolerance towards difference, because it considers it unnatural”.

Mário Nogueira recalled UNESCO’s call to combat hate speech, which has often been made by Chega deputies, particularly with regard to issues related to gender self-determination rights in schools.

The general secretary of Fenprof guaranteed that “teachers will not act out of fear and lesser evils” and that this is the time to celebrate 50 years of April 25th, “remembering those who have always fought for this day, for public school and for this democratic society”.

“We will not stop, out of fear or minor evils, from continuing to fight for a democratic school that is capable of responding to everyone: Be they Portuguese born in Portugal, or foreign children of immigrants”, he highlighted.

Fenprof will now wait for the new deputies to take office in the Assembly of the Republic where it will deliver four petitions: The first will be about the working conditions of teachers, which has 12,793 signatures.

This is followed by a petition on combating precariousness, followed by another on the specific retirement regime (which already has more than 14,600 signatures) and finally, a petition on counting length of service, which passed 17 thousand signatures.

When the new team from the Ministry of Education is known, the federation will deliver a proposal for a negotiating protocol, which will make “clear Fenprof’s intention to defend public schools”, to value the teaching profession, making it attractive so that they can recover “many of the thousands of professionals who abandoned it”.

A proposal for a negotiating protocol will also be presented for “adequate financing of Education”, that is, one that represents 6% of GDP and not the current value, which is “around half”.