One of the teachers’ unions announces a new message: no strike is planned yet

“The council assessed the achieved results of the negotiations and the council decided to continue the negotiations. Refine the wording and continue to negotiate,” E. Milešinas said to Elta after the LSMPS council meeting.

The head of the trade union has said that if a consensus is not reached regarding the raised demands to increase teachers’ salaries, reduce classes and pedagogues’ workloads, a strike will be considered. However, according to E. Milešina, the trade union council did not consider the possibility of a strike on Monday.

“Definitely not, negotiations are still ongoing,” he emphasized.

LŠMPS requires the ministry to increase teachers’ salaries next year to the extent that they reach 130 percent. from the national average wage. It is also required to reduce the number of students in classes and review the structure of the teacher’s tenure. The educators of the union are also asking for a review of the funding of educational assistance and pre-school education.

Another teachers’ union, led by Andrias Navickos, plans to start a month-long strike this Friday. Members of the education workers trade union already went on strike for 2 hours in September.

The trade union of education workers led by A. Navickos demanded to raise teachers’ salaries by 20 percent this year. He also requested that from 2024 January 1 salaries would increase by another 30 percent. In this case, the total salary growth would reach 56 percent.

LŠDPS has also expressed the need to reduce the number of students in the newly formed classes, and proposes to provide for a better procedure for working with students with special educational needs.

On Friday, Minister of Education G. Jakštas, who met with the leaders of teachers’ trade unions, submitted a proposal to increase teachers’ wages by 21 percent in the coming year, and to raise wages by 10 percent from January. However, such a proposal did not satisfy any trade union.