Radical syndicate S.T.O.P – representing teachers and staff in the education sector – has confirmed the ‘school strike’ called from Monday to November 29 is very much ‘on’. The strike period allows schools to decide when and how they ‘strike’ as part of the concerted push by unions to win-back salaries ‘frozen’ by governments in the past, regain career benefits and secure better pay and general conditions. Teachers had considered dropping strike action when news of the government’s collapse first arrived, but now that President Marcelo has determined to keep the government in functions until the State Budget has been passed, syndicates have opted to ‘carry on as planned’, substituting only the plan for a march in Lisbon on November 18 for a demo outside parliament as the State Budget gets its final reading on November 29.
