Moldovan teachers to go on nationwide strike

Chisinau, 12 April /MOLDPRES/ - The teachers will organize a nationwide strike on 28 April. The president of the Education and Science Trade Unions Federation, Dumitru Ivanov, made statements to this effect at a news conference today.  

According to Ivanov, a rally will be organized in each Moldovan education institution on this day. “Unfortunately, the negotiations with the government’s representatives have failed. We were proposed a five-per cent salary increase and this beginning with the next autumn. At the strike, each education institution will decide whether it ceases working for several hours of the lessons will not take place. We assure you that our actions are not prompted by any political force, as we represent strictly the interests of the Federation’s members,” Ivanov noted.  

For his part, the first deputy president of the Education Trade Unions, Ion Bulat, said that, at the rallies, an appeal or a declaration would be approved to back the requirements filed by the education trade unions to the government. “This strike is a preventive one, as the low salaries cannot provide even the existence of the system’s staff. Following the strike, the General Council of Trade Unions will hold a meeting and will decide on the next actions. We are determined not to give up, we will continue the protests in different forms,” Bulat said.   

Prime Minister Pavel Filip has earlier said that he observed the teachers’ right to demand the salary increase. At the same time, he specified that the government showed every openness and willingness to identify solutions to the trade unions’ claims. “Following the negotiations, we got an intermediary result and we agreed to increase by ten per cent the salaries for the non-didactic staff from the education system and the auxiliary personnel. For the moment, this is Moldova’s financial capacity. We are further open and call for dialogue,” the PM stressed.   

The Education and Science Trade Unions Federation, which brings together about 120,000 members, in last October asked the government to equal the salary for the category I of paying wages to the single tariff network with the size of the subsistence minimum and increase the office salary of the didactic and scientific and didactic staff by 50 per cent as of 1 January 2017.     

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor A. Raileanu)