The strike call launched by the teachers’ unions for this January 20 was much less followed than the day of January 13. A new strike is scheduled for next Thursday, January 27, 2022.
Strike of January 27, 2022: what to expect?
[Mise à jour du 21 janvier 2022 à 11h11]. The strike scheduled for Thursday, January 27, is an interprofessional strike, which should be a little more substantial than the strike of January 20, which brought together few participants. This time, teachers will be joined by railway unions. Because with the approach of the presidential elections, everyone is making their demands heard. While previous school strikes were devoted to health protocols, teacher unions should take the opportunity to denounce working conditions and demand an increase in teachers’ salaries, and more resources to deal with the health crisis.
January 20 strike: 1.63% turnout
This Thursday, January 20, the unions FSU, CGT Educ’action, FO and SUD Education, as well as the FCPE, the first organization of parents of pupils, and the high school student movements FIDL, MNL and La Voix lycéenne launched a new call for a strike to denounce the “chaos” caused by the health crisis. But this movement was much less followed than that of January 13th. According to a press release from the Ministry of Education, the rate of participation in this new strike amounts to 1.63% on average, including 1.15% of striking teachers in the 1st degree, and 2.18% of teachers in 2d degree. Jean-Michel Blanquer’s vacation in Ibiza, the day before the announcement of the health protocol for the start of the school year in January, therefore did not swell the ranks of strikers and demonstrators. “This may put a few more people on the street, but not necessarily hundreds or thousands.”, explained to Parisian Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU, the main secondary school teachers’ union.
Teachers’ strike: what are the unions demanding?
“The chaos generated by the management of the health crisis deserves strong responses, beyond the commitments made by the Prime Minister and the Minister of National Education“, explained the CGT Éduc’action on Twitter. The unions are demanding the postponement of specialty tests and cancellation of mid-CP assessments. They also ask the creation of “all the posts necessary to ensure replacements, beyond the use of complementary lists” and the endowment of “schools and establishments with sufficient protective equipment, well beyond the volumes announced“.
“More safety at school”
The unions are calling above all for more safety at school. “It is time for the school to become a protected place again and not the adjustment variable of a health policy in crisis”, denounces the FCPE in a press release dated January 10. She claims more ways to protect students, such as CO2 sensors, soap, masks, as well as “massive screening campaigns, in particular saliva, every week especially in kindergarten where children do not wear masks, but also within all schools. with dedicated health personnel”.
► For more safety at school, the unions are calling for “the return to the protective rule ‘one positive case = closure of the class’, the isolation of intra-family contact cases and a policy of systematic weekly preventive saliva tests”. They also ask that education personnel be equipped with surgical masks and FFP2 for those who want it. “Self-tests must be provided to them and classrooms and catering rooms equipped with CO2 sensors” adds Snuipp.
What announcements after the January 13 strike?
“We are still in an atmosphere of very reinforced social dialogue. Thusday (January 13), we had 4 hours of discussion with the trade unions, we also responded positively to certain things that were requested and which did not pose any particular problem for me”, explained the Minister of National Education on January 17 on the set of C to you. Indeed, on January 13, following the national strike, the trade unions were received at the Ministry of Education by Prime Minister Jean Castex, in the presence of Jean-Michel Blanquer. The latter had announced new measures to restore confidence in teachers and try to calm the situation. In particular, he specified that 5 million FFP2 masks would be distributed to teachers, in priority those working with children with disabilities, AESH or staff from kindergarten. The minister also promised recruitments, and specified that the CP assessments scheduled for January were postponed. “There is now always open dialogue on other subjects (…) Today, we need to have as many schools as possible open, we do not need to have a moment of additional work stoppage”, added Jean-Michel Blanquer.