Thousands of teachers march in Barcelona demanding better pay and working conditions 

Thousands of teachers took to the streets of central Barcelona on Monday to demand improved working conditions and higher salaries, criticizing an agreement between the education department and the unions CCOO and UGT as insufficient.

Other unions – USTEC, Professors de Secundària, and CGT – did not sign the pact and maintained their calls for strike action this week, joined by the Intersindical union.

Teachers in different parts of Catalonia are striking on different days before a full strike on Friday, with Monday's protests covering the Barcelonès and Baix Llobregat areas.

Following early-morning roadblocks, teachers gathered at Plaça Urquinaona and began marching toward Plaça Sant Jaume around 12:50 pm, arriving approximately 45 minutes later.

The demonstration lasted about an hour and passed without incident.

Organizers estimated 25,000 participants, while the local Barcelona police, the Guàrdia Urbana, reported 8,000.

The most common chants included: "By fighting, we are also educating," "If this isn't fixed, strike, strike, strike," and "Public resources for public schools."

Roads blocked

Teachers blocked several key access routes into Barcelona early on Monday morning on the first day of a planned week of strike action.

Shortly after 7 am, around 200 demonstrators blocked the C-31 motorway on the border between Badalona and Sant Adrià de Besòs. The protest lasted about an hour and passed without incident. 

At the same time, another group blocked the Gran Via near Can Batlló in Barcelona, where the protest continued for two hours.

Around 7:30 am, a third group shut down the Ronda de Dalt near Valldaura, though the protest there ended around 8 am after police ordered demonstrators to disperse via loudspeaker.

The A-2 motorway in Cornellà was also blocked.

In Badalona, about 200 protesters walked onto a motorway slip road shortly after 7 am, completely blocking traffic entering Barcelona from the northern approach. The blockade proceeded without incident and with only a single patrol from the Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra police force present.

The demonstrators remained for about an hour, until shortly after 8 am, when they began walking toward Barcelona along two of the motorway's four lanes. The other two lanes reopened and traffic gradually began to return to normal.

Patricia Morales, a special education teacher and USTEC union representative in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, said teachers would "make history" this week with "very large" mobilisations scheduled.

"We are asking the government to reconsider, to sit down again and listen to the majority of workers," she said.

"We are not asking for nonsense, it is not only a pay rise. We are asking for improvements in education, we are asking for the future of our society to be improved."

Week of strikes

The protests mark the first day of a series of strike actions across the education sector this week as teachers continue to demand better working conditions following what they describe as an "insufficient" agreement with the unions CCOO and UGT.

On Monday, teachers in Barcelonès and Baix Llobregat are on strike. 

Strikes will continue on Tuesday in Tarragona, Terres de l'Ebre, and Penedès; Wednesday in Lleida, Alt Pirineu and Aran, and Central Catalonia; and Thursday in Maresme, Vallès Oriental, Vallès Occidental, and Girona.

A strike affecting all of Catalonia is scheduled for Friday.

More than 40,000 USTEC union members voted to reject the government deal with the CCOO and UGT unions.