wide strike of teachers, Castex receives their unions

“Fed up”: teachers and other National Education staff, exasperated by the waltz of health protocols linked to Covid-19, took part in a widely followed strike and demonstrated on Thursday to demand answers from the government, including chef Jean Castex received the unions on Thursday evening.

Nearly 78,000 people (77,500) demonstrated in France, including 8,200 in Paris, according to the Ministry of the Interior, which identified 136 actions throughout the country.

“We see the anger being expressed. There is a fed up, the government must realize it. We are at a breaking point”, declared to AFP Guislaine David, secretary general of the Snuipp-FSU, the first primary school union, during the Parisian demonstration on Thursday afternoon, in the presence in particular of left-wing presidential candidates Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Anne Hidalgo and Christiane Taubira.

Nearly 38.5% of teachers were on strike Thursday in nursery and elementary schools, according to the Ministry of Education, and 75% according to the SNUipp-FSU, the first primary union, which announced one in two schools closed and evoked “a historic mobilization”. In colleges and high schools, 23.7% of teachers were mobilized, according to the ministry. The Snes-FSU, the first secondary school union, put forward the figure of 62% of strikers.

All the National Education unions, bringing together teachers but also nurses, AESH (accompanying students with disabilities) or school life staff, joined – a rarer fact – by inspectors and heads of establishments, have called for this mobilization, denouncing “an indescribable mess” due to health protocols.

They were received at 6:30 p.m., at their request, by Prime Minister Jean Castex at the Ministry of Education, in the presence of Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer. His colleague from Health Olivier Véran, who had just tested positive for Covid, was connected by videoconference. The meeting was still in progress around 8:15 p.m.

“It is not a symbolic appointment that we are asking Matignon today, but the start of a real negotiation for quick and concrete answers on the health aspect, with additional replacements in particular, but also the revaluation of wages”, warned the secretary general of the federation FO of education (FNEC FP-FO) Clément Poullet.

The tension is mounting, with a Minister of Education once a good student of the government and today in turmoil.

– “I throw in the towel” –

“It’s exhaustion, exasperation after 22 months of health crisis, incessant changes that we can sometimes understand, but better communication is needed”, explained in the Parisian procession Bruno Bobkiewicz, secretary general of the main union. headteachers (SNPDEN).

“Three protocols in ten days is nonsense. We lie to parents, because it is a daycare center that is currently open”, testified for her part Anne Gau-Segonzac, 59, director of a school elementary school in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine).

For Maxime, 20, educational assistant (AED) for two years at Joliot-Curie high school in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), “with everything we are asked to do for the management of the health crisis ( …), we can no longer carry out our missions”.

A school nurse, in post for 18 years, says that “the working conditions have become so difficult since Christmas that (she) made the decision, (she) threw in the towel”. “I’m leaving National Education. I’m going back to the hospital where, even in the midst of the Covid crisis, it was less painful”.

In Lyon, more than 3,000 demonstrators according to the unions, 2,200 according to the police, demonstrated in the afternoon. “The directors are exhausted, the assistants are lost, we no longer understand the protocols, we are fed up with teaching in these conditions”, testified Julie Merlin, 28, a kindergarten teacher for two years at Venissieux.

In Bordeaux, where some 3,000 people demonstrated according to the organizers, 1,900 according to the prefecture, the procession stopped in front of the rectorate. Teachers hung there on the grids the fabric masks provided by the National Education on which they wrote messages like “Blanquer resignation”. “This umpteenth protocol was the last straw”, protests Laetitia, kindergarten teacher in Landiras (Gironde).

Around 2,000 demonstrators marched in Montpellier according to the prefecture, 1,500 in Lille, behind a banner “If the school coughs, the republic suffocates” and 850 in Limoges, where the words “Blanquer the virus which kills education” were on the ground in red letters.

– “Turn Blanquer” –

In Clermont-Ferrand, (1,200 people according to the prefecture) signs called for the resignation of the Minister of Education. In Rennes, they were 4,500 according to the organizers, 2,200 according to the police).

In Marseille, where the “closed school” posters were numerous on the doors of establishments, the morning procession counted 2,200 demonstrators according to the police. “Less contempt, more means” or “Blanquer we want a nurse”, could we read on the signs.

Beyond the education professionals, the high school student movements FIDL, MNL and La Voix lycéenne, as well as the FCPE, the first organization of parents of students, had joined the mobilization, and parents showed their support for the strike.

“I understand the exasperation of the teachers”, assured Carine, a mother of a student, in front of an elementary school in the north-east of Paris.

“It’s true that it’s painful, I understand that the staff are fed up”, also believes François Lordenimus, parent of a student from Caluire-et-Cuire (Rhône). “They can’t take it anymore, people”.

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