“in the Toulouse academy more than a hundred positions are not guaranteed” according to the SNES-FSU.
Thursday, January 27, in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), teachers and national education staff are back on strike. According to the unions, because of too low wages, the rectorate of Toulouse cannot find replacements to ensure the courses. Interview with Pierre Priouret, representative of the SNES-FSU.
The teaching environment is bad. Emissions are on the rise among secondary school teachers, even if they remain at a low level, and conventional breaks in mid-career for retraining are exploding. So many signals for the unions who are calling for a new day of strike, Thursday, January 27, two weeks after a first mobilization. Explanations with Pierre Priouret, union representative in Haute-Garonne of the SNES-FSU.
France 3 Occitanie: what are the reasons for this mobilization?
Pierre Priouret, Haute-Garonne SNES-FSU union: “it is part of an interprofessional framework of working conditions and wages. In the second degree, there is a problem of purchasing power due to the freezing of basic remuneration for 10 years. We have lost, over twenty years, 20 to 25% of purchasing power. It ends up doing a lot. And this is coupled with the fact of having the feeling of carrying the system at arm’s length in a particularly difficult health context and without any recognition of their commitment. Despite the statements of Jean-Michel Blanquer who announce revaluations, these measures concern only very few colleagues. This is also reflected in the difficulty of recruiting replacements during the period. It’s been years since the competitions are full. Even contract workers, we can no longer recruit recruiters. This led the rectorate of Toulouse to propose adjustments in terms of wages and hiring on longer contracts.“
France 3 Occitanie: The mobilization of Thursday January 20 was weak, how do you explain it?
Pierre Priouret, Haute-Garonne SNES-FSU union: “Ilast week we did not call a strike. Because in the second degree, it would have been the third Thursday and we always penalize the same classes. What colleagues do not want to do. It is clear that last Thursday, they made the impasse. It was no surprise. Difficult to know what it will give tomorrow. We know that the concern over wages is rising “strongly” in the profession. It is no longer a taboo. For a very long time, teachers complained about their working conditions, about class sizes. Today it’s about wages. A teacher currently starts with 1.2 SMICS (about 1,500 euros net per month) for a Bac+5. There is no longer a student of scientific disciplines who wants to become a teacher. With a scientific Master, you will now find jobs much better paid than in National Education.“
France 3 Occitanie: Aren’t you afraid that this message will not be understood by public opinion and parents of students, who persist in facing the constraints of the Covid epidemic?
Pierre Priouret, Haute-Garonne SNES-FSU union: “Ihe main parents’ association, the FCPE, supports us. They also note the difficulties of recruitment and that by dint of not paying the second degree personnel at their fair investment, no one can be found. This means in the Toulouse academy and outside the health context, at the beginning of December, more than a hundred positions that have not been guaranteed since the start of the school year. There have been students who had zero math lessons in the first term. Parents see this and understand that the school needs staff to operate and that we can’t even recruit contract workers anymore.“