Buenos Aires teachers strike over pay and school safety

Teacher unions in Argentina's Buenos Aires province are launching a 24-hour strike, marking the first such action under Governor Axel Kicillof's administration. Four unions within the Frente de Unidad Docente Bonaerense (FUDB) – Suteba, FEB, Udocba, and AMET – are participating, demanding urgent salary negotiations and concrete measures to address escalating violence in schools.

The strike, scheduled for Tuesday, June 30, is being held under the slogan "Provincial teacher strike. Enough violence! Urgent call for salary negotiations." The unions cite a "brutal adjustment in public education" and a "grave climate of violence" nationwide as reasons for the protest, stating they have received no adequate responses to their demands.

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The provincial measure is adopted due to the lack of responses to demands we have been sustaining from the sector.

Key demands include the full implementation of a parity agreement for violence prevention and a complementary protocol, the application of existing legislation to penalize offenses, and the organization of institutional days focused on safety. They also call for provincial authorities to adopt effective measures guaranteeing the physical and psychological integrity of students, teachers, and the entire educational community.

This action follows a June 12 meeting between the FUDB unions and the Kicillof government. While provincial officials listened to the unions' requests, they did not present a salary proposal, a standard part of negotiation routines. The unions are now demanding an urgent salary offer to counteract the loss of purchasing power affecting education workers, urging both national and provincial governments to address the issue, including the restitution of the National Teacher Incentive Fund (Fonid).

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We demand a salary proposal that allows for wage recovery, a demand directed at both the national government, for the restitution of Fonid, and the provincial government, to which we require an urgent call for negotiations.