Enough is enough ! French teachers are striking today
Published:
On this 13 January 2022, ETUCE member organisations from France[1] are calling for a national strike and protest actions throughout the country to urge the French government to, once and for all, listen to the demands that have been repeatedly expressed by all the professionals working in schools and other education institutions.
In France, since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis and despite an unprecedented amplification of the pandemic, teachers’ appeals for the protection of health and safety in schools have been ignored. Enough is enough! The government of France must recognise the tremendous efforts that teachers, academics and other education personnel have been continuously making to uphold quality education while exposing themselves to serious risks.
"Currently, many students and teachers are in isolation, classes are emptied and then filled and then emptied again, as COVID-19 infections are being detected. This pedagogical discontinuity further weakens the students’ learning. Additionally, the protection measures put in place are largely insufficient. How can we believe that the government is giving any consideration to teachers, students and their parents when no financial investment has been made to make education institutions safe?” asks Odile Cordelier, International Affairs Responsible at SNES-FSU and ETUCE Vice-President.
"The French teachers can't take it any longer, tossed around between constantly evolving health measures protocols. UNSA Education, with its 23 unions representing all educational professions, therefore called for this strike to denounce the damaging management of the crisis. We send a message to the government: to cope with the pandemic, we need protective equipment, replacement means and clear instructions!" stressed Morgane Verviers, UNSA Education Deputy General Secretary.
ETUCE asks the French authorities to fully acknowledge that shortages of staff replacements, managing COVID-19 tests and student absences, teachers’ deteriorating working conditions and their work-life balance as well as organising the gradual return of students requires educational adjustments that make the learning conditions difficult.
“In Higher Education and Research, the lack of resources is similarly becoming unbearable. Today, we agree with the demands of our colleagues from primary and secondary education, as, in our education sector, we also experience the overload of work and the great disorganisation. The SNESUP-FSU with most of the higher education unions calls for support for today’s mobilisation”, said Anne ROGER, SNESUP-FSU General Secretary.
Today ETUCE is standing with all the protesting teachers and other education personnel in France and calls on the government of France to respond to the repeated demands of teachers, academics and other education personnel.
You can find ETUCE’s solidarity letter with member organisations in France here
[1] SNES FSU, UNSA Education, FERC-CGT, Sgen-CFDT, FEP-CFDT, FNEC.FP-FO, SNESUP-FSU, SNCS-FSU, SNUipp-FSU