Classes will begin Monday in the City of Buenos Aires and other 10 provinces

February 26, 2011

After tough negotiations the unions reached an agreement with the government authorities of the City of Buenos Aires.

Eduardo Lopez, head of the union UTE-Ctera, said “With 80% of the votes, teachers accepted the proposal held by the mayor, Mauricio Macri” and confirmed that “there will be no strike on Monday”.

Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, Buenos Aires chief of staff, said in the morning, before the agreement that “There seems to be politically reasons beneath this, if they accept (the unions) money from Cristina Kirchner I do not understand why they don’t accept our money”.

The authorities agreed to improve the wages: from $1900 to $2410 pesos of initial minimum wage and promised an average increase of 31% for July.

In the province of Buenos Aires teachers unions agreed with the proposal done by the government of Daniel Scioli, bringing the minimum wage to $ 2400, a 24% more than they were receiving till today.

In addition, classes with wage increases of about 25% will begin in Catamarca, Chubut, Corrientes, Neuquén, Santa Fe, Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis and Chaco.

In Chaco, the unions SITECH and Atech will do a 48-hour strike, but they predicted that the accession to it will be a minority. The province negotiated a pay deal late last year and reached 20% in two stages.

Teachers from Entre Rios, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Misiones are unhappy with the wage increases granted by their governments and refuse to start with classes.

On Monday 28 February, classes will start in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Misiones, Santa Fe, Salta, Corrientes, Río Negro, La Rioja, San Luis and Chubut.

On Tuesday March 1 classes will start in Cordoba and La Pampa.

On Wednesday March 2 in Tucumán.

The provinces that won’t start classed due to strikes will be Santa Cruz, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Catamarca and Entre Rios.

Finally, Tierra del Fuego and Chubut remain uncertain because the unions did not materialize yet the wage increases and negotiations with government authorities.