The strike of a good twenty thousand teachers is supposed to last at least a week. The Estonian government is not going to bend to demands for a wage increase.
PETER The atmosphere in the teachers’ room is tight right from eight in the morning. The teachers of Peetri elementary school, located near Tallinn, have gathered to think about what the soon-to-be-started strike will bring.
– In our school, about 80 percent of the teachers participate in the strike. It means that there will be no teaching during the strike, principal Think Niinesalu tells.
Estonian elementary and high school teachers plan to start a strike on January 22. The cause of the labor dispute is a dispute over salary increases. According to the teachers’ union, the strike will last at least a week.
The arrangements during the strike are motley. Each municipality decides separately on the opening of schools and the continuation of teaching. In addition, schoolchildren of different ages must be supervised in different ways.
For example, the director of education in the capital Tallinn Kaarel Rundu announced yesterday that schools must remain open and continue teaching also during a strike. Tallinn also plans to pay the striking teachers a salary for at least three strike days.
from January 24 throughout Estonia a support strike for kindergarten teachers and vocational school teachers is organized. It takes a maximum of three days.
There are a total of approximately 27,000 teachers in Estonia. It is estimated that more than 20,000 of them will go on strike.
People stay out of the strike mainly for financial reasons. The basic salary of a teacher in Estonia is 1,749 euros, or about half of the basic salary of a Finnish teacher.
The union’s strike fund is quite modest. In Estonia, less than half of teachers belong to a trade union.
– Yes, there is enough work for the teacher, for example with subject plans, even if there are no students in the school, Luule Niinesalu assures.
An agreement on salary increases was not reached in six months
Most of the students are mostly happy with the extra week off. However, some of the first-graders are worried, because many of them have high school entrance exams in the spring.
In addition, in Estonia, matriculation essays and elementary school final essays are organized in the spring.
– Choosing a place to study after primary school is very important. A week’s break can be painful, Peetri’s student union president, ninth grader Johann Kolk ponders.
He understands teachers’ wishes for a salary increase.
– I think the teachers deserve them, because they do important work for our future, states Kolk.
The teachers end up on strike after a struggle that lasted from last June until the end of the year.
At first, the union’s and the government’s perceptions of wage increases differed drastically. The teachers demanded 11 percent raises, the government offered 1.7 percent.
In Estonia, education is organized by municipalities, but schools are funded by the Ministry of Education.
In the end, the agreement was stuck by a couple of percentage points.
– The salary should rise by at least five percent instead of the 3.1 percent offered by the government. In that case, we are ready to maintain labor peace, the chairman of the Estonian teachers’ trade union EHL Reemo Voltri says.
Minister of Education representing the liberal Estonia 200 party Kristina Kallas however ruled out the possibility on Monday to reach an agreement before the planned start date of the strike.
Kallas confirmed to early Wednesday morning that the strike is no longer unavoidable.
– There will be a strike, that’s for sure, said the minister, who was reached at the radio house of the Estonian Public Radio.
The teachers were last on strike in 2012.
According to ay leader Voltri, who teaches physics in the southern Estonian city of Tartu, the dispute is not only about salary increases for this year and the following years. Salary is essentially related to the future of teaching as a whole.
More than half of Estonian teachers are over 50 years old and a third over 55 years old. The number of teachers working without the necessary qualifications increases every year, says Voltri.
– So far, we are still at the top of the Pisa studies, but the threat of falling from the top is great if we do not have qualified teachers.
Updated on 10.1. at 07:48: Added the comments of Tallinn’s director of education and the minister of education.