During the 24-hour strike called for Wednesday, some 18,000 teachers, according to the union, marched along the central avenue of La Alameda from the Plaza de la Dignidad to the headquarters of the Ministry of Education to demand socioeconomic improvements.

The demonstrators demand the reimbursement to some 76,000 teachers of the amount owed since their salaries were reduced during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), which also affected their pensions.

Other demands are a plan to confront school violence, the payment of delayed retirement bonuses, changes in the sector’s financing model, an end to the work burden and the revision of the teaching day.

According to the Teachers’ Association, some 100,000 teachers, workers and public service employees joined the strike.

Referring to Wednesday’s mobilization, the Minister of Education, Marco Antonio Avila, announced the call for dialogue with the union on Thursday.

According to Avila, his Ministry made progress in the end of the double teacher evaluation, the full school day and the payment of incentive bonus, of which more than twice the amount of the previous year was delivered.

Regarding the historic debt, he said that the path is to work on the reparation of the most urgent cases, and added that the Government has a four-year horizon to complete the different tasks.

Regarding these statements, the head of the Teachers’ Association denounced that “these are the answers to which we were used to during the right-wing governments”.

Diaz added that he was willing to talk with the Government, but warned that if there are no approaches, they would call for a new strike next week for 48 hours and another one of an indefinite nature.

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