The Teachers Union Struggles in Portugal and Europe

The Teachers union struggles in Portugal and Europe

In the last decades a global movement of reforms has transformed the educational systems all over the globe with such intensity that some observers refer to those, as an epidemic of education reform.

The implementation of Third way economic and political models, which was implemented in Europe in the 90’s/20’s, led to the progressive privatization of the European school systems. Initially such privatization was based upon the idea of school independence, thus better adapting their models to its students, and to take the state control and influence from the programs.

Such independence never reached the schools, being just a pretext for Government cuts and privatization of the school system, creating a model in which Teachers and students did not intervene in the school administration and program creation, but focusing most of the administration of the school in the person of the Principal.

With the advent of the financial crisis and subsequent government banking bailouts, Budget cuts were even worse. This time the justification was the need to balance public budget, and therefore sacrifices were to be made before any increase in budget for education. This situation was also deepened by the approval of the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union - which limited even further the budget of the Eurozone countries – and it was even worse in the peripheral euro countries like Portugal Spain Greece and Ireland with the IMF and European Commission state bailout programs.

In order to meet the restrictions imposed by the treaties, governments, especially on southern Europe, continued to cut salaries, stopped career progressions, revoked some teachers rights, created precarious contracts, created centralized schools, imposed more hours to teachers, and students, and devalued the school system overall.

In Portugal teachers are among the most affected groups by the austerity measures, are the most affected by unemployment, and one of the most affected by professional Strain and precarious conditions. Of the 100 000 workers with a precarious job in the state, 30 000 are teachers.

However such situation has been changing, with the arrival of a parliamentary left supported government which has modified the way in which school system problems are addressed. Within Budget Restrictions, imposed by treaties and the massive debt that was assumed by the state, the government is trying to reverse the austerity measures imposed by previous governments, and some changes and improvements are already in place.

But the governments take on non-renegotiating debt gives little margin to improve significantly the school sector, as the budget margin is too little to make the much needed reforms on the sector, and to completely reverse, 10 years or more of, bad policies in education and public school systems.

Therefore the Unions are not comfortable in their current position, as a direct struggle on the only government in almost 2 decades that reversed austerity policies can be counterproductive, but is not enough to solve the education sector problem, since most measures to take on this problem need budget spending, and any policy that implies budget spending is mostly unaccepted. Nevertheless is a better situation than it would be with a Right wing government.

It is with the mindset that a front confrontation with the present government can harm more the union movement than aid it that FENPROF (the school teachers union) is starting other ways of pressuring the government to take action and reforms. Those new forms of struggle need to show the teachers preoccupations and need to be assertive to what teachers want and to what is best to the school system, but they need to be subtle enough not to be too much confrontational in order to maintain the current balance in the parliament.

This is the case of the petition that is going to be handed over to the parliament. The petition demands:

- A plan to end precarious jobs in the public administration, especially on the Teachers sector. Such plan should open new permanent positions for teachers according to the real needs of schools, the end of false “green slits”, and the approval of a collective contract of employment to private schools, among other demands;

- The unfreezing of career progressions and modifications to service time regulations;

- Modifications to the teacher’s timetable, with several clarifications regarding teacher’s activities in the school;

- The approval of reductions to teacher’s timetables linked with their antiquity. Older teachers get reductions in their timetables to compensate for the wear and strain of the profession;

- The approval of an exceptional retirement, without penalties, for those teachers who have already completed their 40 years of service. And that such service can progressively be reduced to 36 years.

In 2016/2917 Fenprof will concentrate its action on three main vectors:

- More and better financing to the public school system.

- More Democracy in school; and

- More respect to teachers.

The union activity will center itself in the schools, evolving more teachers in debates, consultations and clarification sessions.

The union also has some other initiatives:

- Meetings with MP’s;

- Conferences on teachers public tenders;

- National teachers Meeting;

- Judicial action against the Ministry of Education;

- Several actions towards creating a more democratic administration of the school, eliminating the Principal – which does not represent the school, but is only a representative of the ministry power in the school.

As a consequence of the negative effects of neo-liberal globalization, and the social discontent on such countries, we can observe the rise of several neo-con and pre authoritarian regimes all over the world. Most of them, upon a pretense veil of democracy have repeatedly and consistently restricted and undermined several freedoms, especially freedom of speech, and consequently freedom of learning and teaching.

This is particularly true on Hungary and Turkey in which teachers and students, especially from universities, have been persecuted, and have been fired in the order of tens of thousands. Teachers are impeded to teach, and is arresting union related teachers.

The EGITM SEM, an education and science workers union has denounced such cases and asked support to the international community in order to force the government to respect international obligations related to the 87 convention of the International Labor Organization that is binding for the Turkish state, since it was ratified by it.

This Status quo contrasts with the main struggles in Europe in education on the year of 2016, which have focused on a more democratic and inclusive school:

- The labour unions on the UK have condoned the reintroduction of Selective High schools, and have pronounced themselves about the need to integrate more refugees as a consequence of the international crisis;

- In Ireland unions have pronounced against the precarious labour contracts of teachers;

- In Poland unions have protested against several reforms that will make massive layouts in the education sector, with the known consequences upon the educational system;

- In Switzerland a union has created a proposal to promote a deserved retirement for teachers;

- Germany has emphasized the need for an inclusive school and educational system that will help to surpass the current social divisions and disfranchisement.

- Unions in Belgium and Norway ask for more financing as teachers pay from their own pocked the materials they need;

- In Greece a union is trying to exert pressure on the government in order to insert refugee children in the school system.

- In Finland and the Netherlands the main concerns are with racism and the advent of the right wing movements, and more freedom in work and respect for LGBT workers’ rights.

In conclusion we can see that in the present political conditions the problems that affect public schooling are also the problems that affect the teacher who work on it. At the top of their demands is the defense of a democratic and public school system, in which an inclusive and culturally rich and diverse society is created unlike the present one in which individualism entrepreneurship, competition and selection is valued.