In the session that began this Wednesday, Deputies gave half sanction to the Attack on teachers’ right to strike of primary and secondary education with 131 votes. Promoted by La Libertad Avanza and the PRO, it had the support of the majority of the UCR and other allied blocks such as Federal Innovation, Civic Coalition, the Tucuman ex-Union for the Homeland, MPN. Among the positives were some from Union for the Homeland: Liliana from Mendoza Paponet and Guillermo from Jujuy Snopek.
There were 95 votes against The majority of the Union for the Fatherland and the entire Left Front. In the case of Federal Meeting voted more divided: Pichetto, Massot, Monzó, López Murphy were some of those who voted in favor. Stolbizer, Fein, Paulón, De la Sota voted against. From the Radical Party there were only 4 negative votes (Manes, Juliano, Coli and Reyes) and one abstention (Carbajal). Mónica Frade from the Civic Coalition was the only one from her block to abstain; the others voted in favor.
After learning the alarming figure that Every day 1 million children go to bed without dinner (revealed by Unicef Argentina), the government and allied blocks voted to give it Another approach to the educational crisis crossed by the social drama of poverty child: attacking teachers by limiting the right to strike. The project that was approved in the early hours of Thursday not only does not propose any measures to address the 70% of child poverty, but Nor does it speak of investing in school infrastructure, food for cafeterias, or salaries for teachers. who are the ones who support public education with their efforts. “They are trying to shift the blame from those responsible for the educational crisis. The level of education is declining because living conditions are falling. If you take poverty levels to 70%, it is very difficult to achieve good academic performance.” explained Christian Castillouniversity professor and left-wing deputy.
This “educational essentiality” is limited to attacking the right to strike in primary and secondary schools. It establishes that, In the event of a teacher or non-teaching strike, educational establishments will operate the same with 30% of guards of the staff if the force measure is for 1 or 2 days; and 50% if it is 3 days or more.
In the morning there was Protests outside Congress by hundreds of teachers and some unions in the sector which were called to reject this project. At noon, a Federal Police operation sought to defuse the concentration with tear gas and beatings to the teachers. The CTERA union leadership did not call for any strike, limiting the mobilization.
Alejandro Finocchiaro of PRO He was in charge of defending the project and explained “We are going to regulate the right to strike in compulsory education, which is a federal matter” and that “it doesn’t hurt anyone”. But Jose Luis Espert from Freedom Advances He said that “The privilege of not teaching is being limited”.
Deputies of different blocks came out to the crossroads of the ruling party and its allies. Christian Castillo of the Left Front replied that “This law is a scam. All it does is try to prevent teachers from striking, but it does not force any government to invest one cent more in education.” He said there are strikes because “The wages are starvation wages” and put it into data: A teacher in the province of Buenos Aires earns $470 thousand, in Mendoza $425 thousand, in Chubut $422 thousand, Santa Fe $540 thousandwhen the family basket is $1.3 million.
Esteban Paulón of Santa Fe socialism (Federal Meeting) spoke of the “hypocrisy” of those who promoted it, remembering that there were even libertarian deputies who questioned the compulsory nature of education. Blanca Osuna from Union for the Homeland He maintained that “Investment is needed, let’s stop lying to ourselves” and denounced the budget and program cuts that this government is making. He added questioning Itai Hagman: “This is a semantic deception. If we ask anyone if education is essential, the answer is yes. But we are not discussing that here.”.
German Martinezhead of the Unión por la Patria bench, denounced the cuts of Milei’s government that impact educational underfunding: “12% less in real terms due to automatic transfers to the provinces in the first half of 2024, 81% drop in non-automatic transfers to the provinces, 88% drop in the Teacher Incentive Fund (FONID)”. He pointed to the radicals for refusing to include the restitution of the Fonid in the agenda of the session “Not having done so is political pettiness”.
Margarita Stolbizer from Federal Meeting She was also among the opponents of the project and warned that this project has “vices of unconstitutionality” because it goes against the country’s regulations, rulings of the Supreme Court and conventions to which it adheres of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Castillo From the left he added another argument: “The proposed measure puts children in school at risk. Can you imagine taking care of 100% of the children in a school with 30% of the teaching staff? How is that done? And feeding them? It’s absurd.”.
Nadia Marquez from La Libertad Avanza in Neuquén was upset with the intervention of Nicolás del Caño from the left when he was defending the teachers’ strike that is taking place in that province. After laughter and screams from the libertarian from his bench, Del Caño came out to meet him: “Schools exploit and workers die. This House of Representatives earns $4 million! Senators earn $7 million and Adorni’s lackey earns $5 million and they have the nerve to say that a teacher who earns $400,000 cannot complain!”.
Among the defenders of this half sanction were: the voices of the UCR. Julio Cobos He said that in the face of the educational crisis “We have to do something. I know that this law is not a panacea, but we understand that we must take this important and necessary step.”and argued that it is for “avoid abuse” Regarding the strikes. Then, Carla Carrizo explained why she and “27 radicals are supporting this project”. “We are telling the unions that this is a power issue” He assured, and was honest, that “This is not going to solve anything in the overall sense, but it will help distribute power.”.
The arguments of those who supported the initiative with their positive vote were difficult to justify: there was a disconnect between the description of a long educational crisis and child poverty, and the “solution” they were offering by attacking the right to strike.
“Today we should be talking about voting to declare teachers second-class citizens, because they want to take away their right to protest.” added Alejandro Vilca of Jujuy from the Left Front announcing the rejection and support for the teaching and the educational community. And he pointed against La Libertad Avanza: “They want vouchers so that only those who have money can study”.
He Javier Milei’s government He had already tried to impose this attack by means of DNU 70/2023, which was stopped by the courts along with the entire labor section. He then included it in the Ley Bases, but it ended up being left out of the version that was sanctioned. Now he achieved the half sanction, but The Senate still needs to process it before it becomes law.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
