By Felipe Osman
The teaching parity does not advance. The UEPC, which was convinced that the Province would make a new offer before Tuesday to avoid the strike, got the forecast wrong, and, without any other alternatives, continues to deploy its scheme of assemblies to define the continuity of its action plan, waiting for the Civic Center to finalize the new proposal.
Teachers met in school assemblies yesterday and will do so again today. On Tuesday of next week, the Provincial Assembly, made up of the delegates of each department, will decide – surely – on a new day of strike if there is no “superior” offer. However, the conflict seems not to be among the Civic Center’s priorities.
The union has just carried out a resounding strike last week, with 80 percent of the workers in the province and close to 90 percent in the capital, according to the union’s own data. Sadop, which represents teachers from private establishments, also joined the strike. The Provincial Government announced that it will discount the days of the strike, and organizing a new strike day with broad compliance represents a great challenge for the union, which in fact decided to call a 24-hour strike for last Tuesday, among other things, because it was not sure of getting broad support on the second day of the strike if it decided to call a 48-hour strike.
The Civic Center, meanwhile, downplays the claim. In radio statements, the Secretary General of the Government, David Consalvi, said that the teacher’s salary in Córdoba is third in the national ranking. And that it even ranks first if compensation for the FONID (Teacher Incentive Fund) that the nation withdrew and the Province replaced, and the Free Educational Ticket that Córdoba finances for teachers are considered.
The government also believes that its first offer is reasonable and is calibrated in relation to its financial possibilities. And that much of the conflict that has arisen is much more related to circumstances relating to the union itself than to the offer itself.
This is a message within the UEPC, which since its last elections not only shows fissures between the provincial leadership and the departments dominated by the opposition, but also with sectors of the ruling party itself, which also split in some departments; among them, the Capital.
In any case, the governor announced on Wednesday, during the inauguration of an educational center in Villa María, that the Province would improve the offer “within its possibilities,” and that the Government’s intention is to reach an agreement. However, the officials of the Civic Center understand that the advantage is on their side.
In its reading of the general context, the Province understands that the recession and the rise in unemployment figures changes the dynamics of negotiations, altering the priorities of the unions. “Salaries are secondary today, the main thing is employment,” they summarize, without euphemisms.
Without going too far back in the archives, we can recall that, during the first weeks of its administration, the SEP was in turmoil when the Province threatened to drop thousands of contracts in the central administration. This logic could not be transferred linearly to the UEPC, which has a different contracting modality, but the most combative delegations of the union have already turned on an alarm light in this regard by demanding the closure of courses.
Trascartón, the calendar works in favor of the Province. When the union finishes its assembly schedule, on Tuesday of next week, it will already be hours before the start of the winter vacation, which not only implies the impossibility of going to a forceful measure during the recess, but also that the Vacations will inevitably have the effect of dissipating the bases and causing the conflict to lose pressure.
