Teaching unions announce 5 days of strike action and protest

The unions will hold five days of action against the 70 proposals, put forward by a committee of education experts, teachers and principals in December at the request of Education minister Ben Weyts.

Recommendations include a 38-hour working week, more focus on new teachers and extra compensation for teachers working in schools with significant challenges. The ACOD, COC and VSOA unions reject the report as “fantasies, ill-considered measures and recipes from the past”.

Over the past few months, unions have been consulting their members. “The plan before us does not at all meet the concerns and needs of teaching staff,” said Nancy Libert, secretary of the socialist ACOD Education union. “It makes proposals that are not substantiated, such as introducing a 38-hour week. There is no mention of how this will be achieved and measured. Research shows that staff today work around 43 hours. How are they going to compensate for that?”

The unions are organising five days of actions in May: 7 May in Antwerp, 8 May in Ostend, 13 May in Leuven, 14 May in Hasselt and 15 May in Ghent. They will also submit strike notices.

“We are calling on as many people from the education sector as possible to participate,” said Libert. “The idea is not for people to go on strike and stay at home, but for them to take to the streets with us. That way we can together send a very clear signal that we don’t want this plan.”

Weyts, of Flemish nationalists N-VA, said he understood the unions’ concerns but did not understand why they are planning action. “This is purely advice for the next Flemish government,” he said. “Instead of saying what they are against, perhaps they could say what they are for.”