The Lithuanian School Students’ Union (LMS) is going to join the teachers' strike at the end of September.
A teachers’ unions is planning a warning strike on Friday and, if talks with the government fail, are calling a proper strike at the end of September. Teachers’ demands include pay raises and smaller classrooms.
“The strike is inevitable, the processes of improving teachers’ working conditions have been delayed for too long and are pushing the education community into a corner,” said Jonas Trumpa, president of the LMS, on Tuesday. “The Lithuanian School Students’ Union supports the teachers, the students and the teachers will go hand in hand towards a common goal.”
On Tuesday, the LMS and the Lithuanian Education Workers’ Trade Union (LŠDPS) also signed a cooperation agreement, whereby the parties will commit themselves to purposeful and mutual cooperation during the teachers’ strike and to pursue the goals of the strike agreed by the parties.
The LMS says it supports the two demands put forward by the union: an increase in teachers’ salaries and a reduction in the number of children in classrooms.
The warning strike on Friday is being organised by the LŠDPS, led by Andrius Navickas. If the demands cannot be agreed by the end of September, the union plans to announce a proper strike.
Navickas said on Tuesday that there was a possibility to reach an agreement with the Ministry of Education.
“It depends on the goodwill of both sides. So far there has been none from the government. We can see a slight change in their rhetoric, a softening of their position,” he said, adding that the chances of reaching an agreement were “fifty-fifty”.
The demands include 20-percent pay rises from September and another 30 percent from January next year.
“We hear talks about salaries and that is where there’s most progress towards an agreement,” Navickas said, adding that the government was still reluctant to budge on classroom sizes.
Around 500 teachers may join the strike at the end of September, according to him.
Another union, the Lithuanian Union of Education and Science, led by Egidijus Milešinas, has also announced a lost of demands that include pay rises and smaller classrooms. It is not ruling out the possibility of joining the strike.
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