Argentine Teachers' Union wins major collective bargaining victory against Macri gov't: a 40% raise.
Argentine Education Minister Esteban Bullrich and the country's five major teachers' unions reached an agreement today after two months of collective bargaining negotiations. The unions thus obtained a 40% cost-of-living raise for their members, which between the five unions account for most of Argentina's 700,000 non-university teaching staff.
The head of the National Teachers' Union (CTERA), Sonia Alesso, announced that the minimum monthly starting salary for grade school teachers was raised from 6,060 pesos for the 2015 school year ($650 at the time) to 7,800 pesos ($505), effective immediately, and to 8,500 ($550) by July. The Education Ministry also pledged to increase outlays for the National Teacher Incentive Fund (FONID), a program established in 1999 to reward improved school districts.
The breakthrough was achieved despite the Macri administration's explicit opposition to collective bargaining raises in excess of 25%. It also comes at a time when most provinces and the City of Buenos Aires are still negotiating their own public sector worker contracts, which will inevitably be impacted by these news. Indeed, in the Province of Buenos Aires (the nation's largest) Roberto Baradel, head of the Provincial Teacher's Union (SUTEBA), recently announced that, while negotiations are ongoing, his union will obtain raises of no less than 34%. A similar amount (33-37%) is being negotiated with the City of Buenos Aires Teachers' Union (CEA).
These figures are all the more notable because both districts are governed by the right-wing PRO, the party led by President Mauricio Macri.
CTERA Secretary General Sonia Alesso pointed out, however, that sharp budget cuts enacted (by decree) by the Macri administration have forced most other provinces to limit their teacher raises to 25% - the figure preferred by Macri. Consequently, the start of the school year - scheduled nationwide for Monday, February 29 - may be delayed by strike action in at least four of these provinces. The same, according to SADOP head María Lazzaro, applies to private schools - which educate 29% of Argentina's 11 million non-university students.
The Macri administration, meanwhile, still refuses to begin collective bargaining talks with the National Federation of University Faculty (CONADU).
Labor disputes, far from being limited to teachers' or other public sector unions, have increased sharply since President Mauricio Macri took office in December because inflation, which was already around 25% during former President Cristina Kirchner's second term, rose sharply following Macri's decision to devalue the peso by 40% on December 17.
Macri then ordered the National Census Bureau (INDEC) to stop publishing inflation data - a decision most labor leaders linked to the collective bargaining negotiations that were about to begin nationwide. Private consulting firms, however, have made inflation projections for 2016 averaging 38% - the highest since the 2002 crisis. The CGT, Argentina's largest labor federation, projects that inflation will reach 42% (the highest since 1991).
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A hard pill to swallow for the intensely anti-union Macri, whose advisors have referred to collective bargaining as "fascism" (sound familiar?).
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