National Committee for the Workers’ and Trade Union Movement
The teachers and other education workers, active and retired, have stood up in struggle for decent salaries and for the reestablishment of economic, social and professional rights pulverized as a consequence of the pernicious neoliberal policies of the government of Nicolás Maduro, which, through memorandum-circular 2792 and the instructions of the National Budget Office (Onapre), dumps the full weight of the crisis and of the criminal sanctions imposed on the Venezuelan nation by the imperialist powers on the shoulders of the workers.
The courageous attitude of the educators and a large part of the workers and administrative personnel in the service of the Ministry of Education gives strength and encouragement to the general struggle of the Venezuelan working class for sufficient salaries and pensions to live in dignity, as established in article 91 of the constitution.
The massive mobilizations demonstrate the unbreakable will of the Venezuelan teachers to fight for decent living and working conditions, but also to guarantee a quality education to the children and adolescents of the country, with schools in good condition and provided with the necessary equipment and a comprehensive food program. There is every reason for this struggle to be taken up by education workers, parents and representatives, the student body and the people in general.
With obscene delaying tactics, the boss-state refuses to discuss the third collective agreement of the education sector, postponing the improvement of economic and social clauses, condemning the teaching staff and all the workers who work for the Ministry of Education to misery. Such a situation, typical of the neoliberal labor deregulation and the disproportionate reduction of public spending by the government, must be fought with the broad unity of action of the entire working class. Workers must become active and organize from the grassroots.
Faced with the intransigence of the boss-state and the complicit attitude of the union leaderships that are negotiating a draft collective agreement that has not been consulted or approved by the grassroots teachers, class-conscious trade unionism expressed in the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores de Venezuela (CUTV) and the Frente Nacional de Lucha de la Clase Trabajadora (FNLCT) proposes: to unify and organize the teachers and other education workers, today mobilized in all parts of Venezuela, into a National Committee for the Struggle for Decent Wages, so that the masses of education workers can build a powerful autonomous force from their own bases, so that the struggle does not decline, but advances beyond the pretensions of the boss-state and the inconsistencies of the union leaderships.
This committee, made up of delegates elected in assemblies, will have the objectives of giving cohesion, direction and continuity to the struggle; to demand that the trade union organizations that are signatories to the collective agreement inform the teachers about the content of the project and the proposals presented at the discussion table; to review the wage clauses, and to produce new proposals in discussion with the grassroots teachers and with the workers and administrative staff; and to demand direct participation in the discussion of the collective agreement, especially with the aim of winning decent salaries and pensions, indexed to the basic basket of goods and services.
The National Committee for the Struggle for Decent Wages, with a presence in the educational centers and with coordinating bodies in each region and at the national level, will coordinate the mobilizations, will fight for the democratization of the trade union movement with independence from the boss-state and will fight, together with the educational communities, for the rescue of public education as a fundamental human right of our people.
Tribuna Popular 