Oaxaca Teachers' Union to Start Indefinite Strike on March 23 Milenio
go to original March 15, 2013

OAXACA - Section 22 of the teachers' union, which is part of the [disident] National Coordinatiing Committee of Education Workers (CNTE), is determined to begin an indefinite strike on March 23 to reinforce its street protests against the federal education reform and to seek the democratization of the national teaching profession.

Teachers had called for an open vote by its 74,000 union members, in which over 25,300 teachers voted to support the proposed indefinite strike and 10,826 were against it.

The teachers announced they would seek approval from the State Congress of their plan supporting alternative teacher assessment and the backing of constitutional challenges against the federal education reform.

The union group also supports the struggle of the normal school [teachers college] students to demand from the government of Oaxaca delivery of 920 automatic teachering positions.

The indefinite strike will harm up to one million 300 thousand primary school students attending 13,800 schools spread over 570 municipalities.

MV Note: Federally funded, rural normal schools were established in the 1920's, after the Mexican Revolution, to educate local, poor, usually indigenous youth to teach in schools in their home communities. Students were guaranteed positions upon graduation. The failure, or inability, of the government, to provide these jobs has been one of the causes of many recent student protests, including those in Ayotzinapa, Guerreo in Dec. 2011, in which two students were killed by police.

See Spanish original

Posted by Reed Brundage at Mexico Voices

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