The Buenos Aires legislators of the official interbloc Together for Change (JxC) signed a majority opinion for the bill to “strengthen the teaching career”, despite the fact that it was rejected by both the Union of Education Workers (UTE-Ctera ) and the Ademys association, as well as by the opposition blocks of the Frente de Todos and the Left.
JxC signed the opinion after a plenary session of commissions in which its deputies defended the initiative by saying that it generates a “horizontal career” that will allow teachers to access higher salaries without leaving the classroom, that is, without having to opt for managerial positions .
However, from the Front of All (FdT) they questioned the project because it modifies “working conditions that must be discussed with the union associations, and not defined in the Legislature.”
The Left, for its part, defined the initiative as a “disguised labor reform,” and the unions considered it “extortion.”
The project, authored by the radical deputy Manuela Thourte, creates three new positions: specialist teacher, trajectory coordinator and tutor tutor, and establishes the “exceptional” title for teachers at the secondary education level that as of March 31, 2020 “will be are holding interim positions”.
The Education, Budget and Labor Legislation commissions participated in the plenary session and it lasted for more than four hours, since teachers and more than 30 deputies, of the 60 that make up the City Legislature, attended.
During the first hour the teachers spoke, including the general secretary of the Union of Education Workers (UTE-Ctera), Angélica Graciano, who warned that, if the project is approved as it is, “more than 10,000 teachers will be left out of the possibility of accessing job stability.
Alan Etkin, preceptor of secondary education, said for his part that treating the reform and securitization in the same project “is an extortion.”
Mercedes de Mendieta, a member of the Ademys teachers’ association, said in her turn that the reform to the statute “installs the salary for merit” and favors the “kiosks that some unions have with paid courses.”
Is that the bill also provides salary improvements for those who receive training, which will be “organized” by the Ministry of Education of the City.
Meanwhile, from the FdT, deputy Alejandro Amor said that “90 percent” of the bill refers to “working conditions” for teachers, which “should be discussed with the union associations and not be defined in the Legislature”.
Legislator Amanda Martín took the floor on behalf of the Left Front, defining the project as a “disguised labor reform” to “make working conditions even more flexible,” and regretted that teachers from teacher training institutes have been excluded from the possibility of accessing tenured positions.
For Martín, the reason why higher education was not included in the securitization is because the Buenos Aires government “wants to move forward with Unicaba” and “empty” the 29 teacher training institutes.
Despite the criticism, JxC signed a majority opinion and the project was able to be voted on at the venue in the next session, scheduled for May 12.
However, Thourte said the text will “continue to be worked on” until the day of the vote.
“The project seeks to promote new performance opportunities in the professional teaching career,” said the deputy at the end of the meeting.
