Percy Moo as Einstein

Percy Moo as Einstein
Dog=Einstein2

Monday 21 October 2013

HOW TO GO ON STRIKE WITHOUT REALLY STRIKING OR WITHOUT LOSING A DAY’S PAY.

This week is a week of strikes in Spanish education. Students will be striking for three days while teachers at all levels will be striking on Thursday, in some cases whether they want to or not.

But first, why the strike? The strike has been called to protest against the right-wing Spanish Government’s latest educational reforms. I will not bore you with the details, apart from saying that this one, like all such reforms, is a proverbial curate’s egg – good in parts and stinkingly rotten in others. Educational reform, promoted by whichever party in whichever country will always be divisive and will always (obviously) serve party dogma. Like hurricanes and other such phenomena, educational reform is cyclical. All that the long-suffering populace can do is simply batten down the hatches, mumble and grope around in the dark and endure stoically before emerging blinking into a new, strange panorama. They will then try to make a good fist of the wreckage until the next one hits.  

The “democratically elected”[1] powers that be of the august educational establishment for which I work are, obviously, against the government’s proposals, but to be fair on them, they have also opposed decisions taken by the previous left-wing government too. Basically, they are a bunch of grandstanding progressives. Indeed, so progressive are they that strikers lose no pay!!!

Surely the legitimacy of a strike lies in the fact that the workers sacrifice a day’s pay to voice their concerns? Where the reward for those whose conscience dictates that they  disagree with the call? Working or not, we will all get paid and thus the decision to strike or not loses all credibility. Evidently however, the figures will look good on the news. This Thursday I will be “striking” because the centre where I work will be closed down, not because I particularly want to.





[1] Our glorious leaders are elected by vertical democracy. This was a wheeze used by the the Franco régime in order to give itself a veneer of democracy. It consists of different collectives, in this case, let’s say, teaching staff, unions, students, administrative staff, &c. electing various representatives who then elect the next tier of representatives &c., &c. &c. until we arrive at the Rector and his Cabal. The idea of a directly-elected team is somehow anathema – perhaps for the same reason that Franco and his mateys didn’t like direct elections: the result might not be the “correct” one. 

2 comments:

  1. Paying strikers is certainly a novel idea. While I take your point about sacrifice and reward, I can see both sides. For one thing, it takes away the excuse sometimes used by non-strikers that "I can't afford to go on strike".

    Moreover, there is still a cost incurred by a strike, in lost production, say, or, in the case of teachers, tuition time lost by students. This underlines the point that strike action is a messy tactic in that its victims are often innocent parties.

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  2. In general terms, over the past 5 years I have lost about 40% purchasing power, yet I still earn more than most people in the private sector. This is true of most of those who work for the Spanish State. In general terms, we are a pampered, privileged lot and could afford to lose a day's pay. In the private sector however, the loss of a day's pay might indeed be quite serious.
    It is therefore scandalous that those of us in secure, relatively well-paid jobs (paid for by the taxes of those in the private sector) should enjoy such a privilege - a privilege whose only aim is to massage the numbers of strikers when reported in the media. I see such payments as a corrupt political bribe more than anything else.

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