Union and government clash over pay demands as teachers' strike blocks major roads

Teachers taking part in a strike across Catalonia blocked several major roads and access routes into Barcelona on Tuesday morning, causing widespread traffic disruption during rush hour.

Protesters disrupted traffic on the B-20 in Santa Coloma and Mundet, the C-32 in Mataró, the AP-7 in Montornès and between Cerdanyola and Sant Cugat del Vallès, the C-17 in Malla, and the C-55 from Manresa towards Barcelona, according to the Catalan Traffic Service.

The roadblocks were gradually lifted throughout the morning.

In Barcelona, around 100 teachers also blocked Gran Via near Can Batlló.

The arrival of a Mossos d'Esquadra patrol prompted chants of "Less police, more education," while protesters ironically announced over loudspeaker that "two staffroom colleagues" had arrived – a reference to recent tensions between the education community and the Catalan government after two undercover police officers allegedly infiltrated a teachers' assembly.

Education minister defends government

Catalonia's education minister Esther Niubó described union demands for a monthly pay rise of around €400 as "maximalist," saying such positions "do not help bring sides closer together."

Speaking to Catalunya Ràdio on Tuesday, Niubó was responding to comments by USTEC spokesperson Iolanda Segura, who told the newspaper Ara that the salary increase would be needed to end the protests.

Niubó said the Catalan government had already moved on salaries by approving a 30% increase in the specific supplementary pay component for teachers, equivalent to roughly €200 more per month over four years.

She added that teachers' demands go beyond pay and include calls for greater educational resources, particularly for inclusive education, and said this was where "paths to consensus" and room for negotiation could be found.

The minister urged unions to attend a sector-wide meeting scheduled for Thursday.

Niubó defended the government's handling of the dispute, saying it was making an "unprecedented effort" to respond to teachers’ demands and describing the agreement already reached with the CCOO and UGT unions as "beginning to lay the foundations" for improving the education system.

Union proposal

USTEC spokesperson Iolanda Segura said on Tuesday that the teachers' union could consider ending its protest campaign if the Catalan education department proposed a monthly salary increase of between €400 and €500 gross.

"It is a proposal that could be put on the table and we could see whether the sector considers it acceptable, because with that we would reverse a situation of salary injustice," Segura told the newspaper Ara.

She added that any deal would need a timetable for implementation, suggesting that €200 could be introduced in the first year, with the remainder phased in over the following two or three years.

"That would allow us to finish negotiating," she said, while warning that the union would not sign any agreement without approval from members.

In any case, she said the €200 monthly increase included in the current agreement was "unacceptable."

"We cannot cope"

Àurea Calsapeu, a teacher from Mataró who took part in the C-32 blockade, said classrooms were "overcrowded" and that public education was "falling apart."

"We need resources for inclusion. We have a lot of diversity and we cannot cope with everything," she said.

Òscar Simon Bueno, a USTEC union representative in Vallès Oriental who participated in the AP-7 blockade in Montornès, criticised the lack of resources for inclusive education and the loss of purchasing power among teachers.

He said the roadblocks were intended to pressure the government into making a "substantive" proposal capable of convincing the sector.

"The will of education staff is to work, to teach and to be in schools," he said.

Several unions have called a series of strike actions between May 6 and June 5.