It is curious that a Government that for a year and a half was unable to determine the number of students without one or more teachers for a long period of time (30 days or more, for example) was able, in a few days, to calculate the financial cost of today’s general strike, even before knowing the level of participation or the impact by sector of activity.
The calculation of 600 to 700 million euros, which has also appeared as 792 or 793, seems to be made with the same calculating machine used in the past to calculate the value of the expense of recovering teachers’ service time. Remember that in 2019 the then Minister of Finance Mário Centeno spoke of an impact of 800 million euros and, in February 2023, the then Prime Minister António Costa even extrapolated, in an interview with TVI, a value of 1300 million euros. Public finances would collapse, many experts assured, which turned out to be false. But, in Portugal, doing bad math is not a cause of failure, as the careers of those two personalities demonstrate.
Returning to the costs of the general strike (which I am doing, as this text is delivered the day before publication), to address the peculiar way in which a parental federation decided to raise the issue in a statement dated December 8th, which reveals that even national holidays must be days of productive intensity. It can be seen in the document from FEDAPAGAIA (Federation of Parents’ Associations of the Municipality of Gaia) that its members are very critical of the strike because, if they supported it, the terrible dramas they describe would not occur, as they could stay at home, with their family, sharing quality time with their students. But no, these are people for whom the right to strike should only be exercised if it does not cause damage or if it does not involve “significant financial and emotional costs” (point 2.2 of the document). In other words, if it is an innocuous strike, carried out, if possible on holidays, between midnight and eight in the morning.
First of all, regarding the financial costs, it seems to me that they will be higher among those who go on strike. As for the “emotional costs”, I can only express my surprise because, after all, I never thought that staying at home for a day (or two) with the children, if schools close, would be so “costly”. But we are always learning and I recognize that I identify little with certain aspects of this “new parenting”.
FEDAPAGIA also wants school management to commit an illegal act when it “requests (…) that they ensure, within the applicable legal framework, the minimum services necessary to guarantee the safety and monitoring of students”. If you don’t know that this legal framework doesn’t exist, you should know. There is no point talking about “responsibility” and “proportionality” when, in essence, the aim is to empty the strike of its effects. Everything else is just rhetorical cosmetics.
Basic Education Teacher. Write without applying the new Spelling Agreement