News
Educational negotiations in Madrid run up against the cost of demands
The Madrid councillor maintains that the cost of union demands is unaffordable and points to the negotiation meetings. The protest included a blockade on the A-42 and a gathering at the UAM.
Thirteen meetings during the first year of a sectoral agreement and another four on the horizontal teaching career are part of the record with which Mercedes Zarzalejo defended negotiations with public education unions.
The Councillor for Education, Ciencia y Universidades argued that the regional government cannot accept demands whose cost, she said, has been assessed by the department and is unaffordable. She also maintained that the dialogue tables remain open and recalled that the unions signed the sectoral agreement with the Madrid government.
The dispute also played out in the streets. More than a hundred teachers blocked traffic on the A-42, near the Puente de Praga, on Antonio López street. Zarzalejo criticised the action for affecting workers and students and argued that the right to strike should not infringe on the rights of others. She also insisted that students should be able to finish the school year without setbacks in their education.
At the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), around 50 teachers and students gathered to request a meeting between Zarzalejo and the strike committee. During the protest, they chanted slogans in favour of public, quality education.
In the university sphere, the councillor defended the multi-year funding agreement signed in May with the rectors and described it as historic. According to Zarzalejo, the agreement covers 14.8 billion euros. She also stated that funding for that year was close to 1.5 billion.