“The government’s announcements are far from responding to the gravity of the situation”said Wednesday on franceinfo Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of the National Union of Secondary Education (SNES-FSU), while the strike promises to be followed by teachers on Thursday, September 28.
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After what the professor of economics and social sciences calls the “return of the shortage” both the establishments have been short of staff and as a result of “the wave of resignation”teachers will take to the streets to express their “anger” and their expectations, particularly on the question “salary attractiveness”. The trade unionist will meet the Minister of National Education Pap Ndiaye on Monday August 3 to bring the demands of her sector.
franceinfo: Do you already know how many teachers will go on strike tomorrow?
Sophie Venetitay: It is difficult to put forward a figure the day before because the teachers of colleges and high schools are not obliged to declare themselves strikers before the day of the strike. Thursday morning, we will have reliable figures directly observed on the ground. That said, we have organized a large number of meetings in recent weeks, particularly on the issue of salaries, and these meetings have always brought together a lot of colleagues.
“We feel that there are a lot of expectations on the salary issue, a lot of anger too, after the latest government announcements, because there was deception in relation to President Emmanuel Macron’s promises during the campaign.”
Sophie Vénétitay, SNES-FSUat franceinfo
Today, compared to what he had promised, the account is not there. A month after the very difficult return to school that we experienced, the return to the shortage, we saw clearly that we were short of teachers. Finally, the announcements made are very far from responding to the seriousness of the situation. Since we talk no more no less about our salaries and the future of the school, yes, tomorrow [jeudi]we will be mobilized, on strike.
However, there have been efforts made precisely with regard to salaries in the National Education system. Is this insufficient, in your opinion?
Yes. Between two rounds, Emmanuel Macron had promised a 10% salary increase for all teachers, without compensation, from January 2023. We understood that this would not be in January 2023, but in September 2023 and that we were very far from 10% for everyone, since there, the government announces a budget of 635 million euros for the year 2023, to increase salaries. We at SNES-FSU have done our calculations. To increase everyone’s salaries by 10% in 2023, it would take 1.2 billion euros. The account is not there. And it may not just be a calculator problem on the part of the ministry. There is really not enough financial effort. It’s a bit like the ministry running a marathon and after a kilometer raising its arms and saying, “It’s good, we’ve done the job”. No, the job is not done. And that does not really allow us to tackle the root of the problem, which is a problem of in-depth and long-term salary attractiveness.
Even if the government has committed that no teacher will earn less than 2,000 euros net per month from the next school year in 2023?
The fact that no teacher starts their career with less than 2,000 euros is a start. But that is not enough. You also have to think about career backgrounds and ends. And for these colleagues, we are still largely in the dark, whereas these are colleagues who have lost purchasing power in recent years, who have suffered from the freezing of the index point, who are currently suffering inflation and who today sometimes find it difficult to meet certain expenses. I am thinking of colleagues who are in several establishments and who sometimes have to travel hundreds of kilometers during the week.
Today, there is a real salary problem in National Education and this problem concerns everyone. By not attacking the mediums and the ends of career, the ministry takes the risk to poke a lot of bitterness and anger whereas one knows a wave of resignations in National Education. So, if there are no strong measures, the government risks fueling this wave of resignations and this is not the time, we are already short of teachers in our colleges and high schools. On the other hand, we must not forget certain categories. You should know that there are many AESH who have a salary of 800 to 900 euros. How can we live with this?