A joint communiqué has been issued by the CAV education sector unions. The Steilas, LAB, ELA, CCOO and UGT trade unions have denounced that the Department of Education of the Basque Government is “imposing” the cuts, without them even informing them: “ In the IRALE courses, in the centers of Idiomatic Entrenchment, in the relationships of jobs that have been transferred to the centers, in the reinforcements generated by the needs indexes of the centers...”. In this regard, they have warned that the cuts are not only unfair, but are also being "improvised".

Trade unions believe that the direction should be the opposite, supporting public services in general and “investing” in public education in particular: “Strong public education is a great tool to compensate for the imbalances that exist in society.”

6% of GDP for public education

The trade unions, following the recommendations of UNESCO, ask the Basque Government to allocate 6% of GDP to education, remembering that in 2019 only 3.5% were invested. To this end, they have proposed that the budgets of the Vitoria-Gasteiz Chamber be adapted. Trade unions believe that COVID-19 has sharpened previous needs and received a broad list of demands: “To lower ratios and increase the number of workers, the gratuitousness of the Haurreskolak Consortium, to increase the resources for the special need for education, Pedagogues Therapists and HIPI, to guarantee those responsible for cleaning, kitchen and dining necessary, to take measures to alleviate the workload of the workers, to implement a plan for the reactivation of youths to allow the retirement of the workers, to consolidate the staff with guarantees of temporary workers, to

“It’s going to meet us in front”

Trade unions have called for resources and negotiation to develop all these adjustment measures and working conditions. If the path of cuts and impositions is not left behind, they announce “forceful” mobilizations and responses: “We announce that if we do not change all of this we will be in front!”