The strike, starting Monday, October 23 and Tuesday 24, demands a salary leveling promised and unfulfilled by the government, declared the secretary of the Organization of Authentic Education Workers, Gabriel Espinola, as quoted by the newspaper.

The national strike and the street demonstrations of the teachers’ unions were decided by the Union Unity Command, which includes nine teachers’ organizations, said the union leader.

The protests involve concentration points in localities extending from the capital and other metropolitan areas and the neighboring Central department of the Chaco region, in the extreme northwest of the country.

The mobilizations in Asunción include the central Plaza Uruguaya to the headquarters of the Economy and Education Ministries.

The acts of force of the sector are in response to the non-compliance by the Executive of an agreement signed on August 27 which promised increases in teachers’ salaries.

The unions are requesting a 4.3 percent salary increase for professors, 8.8 percent for grade teachers, and 16 percent for the rest of the categories and functions, among them directors, evaluators, psychologists and technical area personnel.

According to the union member Espínola, the Economy Ministry promised to include these percentages in the budget for the current year 2023, but this measure was not fulfilled.

The Vice-Ministry of Financial Administration of that portfolio then offered to grant a four percent general increase as of July 2024, but ‘we rejected that proposal’, the teacher leader pointed out.

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