Portugal’s National Education Federation (FNE), one of the two largest teachers’ unions, has welcomed the “enormous support” of school staff for a national strike staged today, which according to an initial survey by union officials resulted in the closure of more than 100 schools. FNE released a two-page list of schools and centres that had failed to open their doors mid-morning: some 50 or so in the north, more than two dozen in the Lisbon area, another two dozen in the Centre region and as many schools and centres again in the Alentejo and Algarve regions. “Nearly three weeks after the start of the school year, teachers and teaching assistants once more struck to press old demands, such as the full restoration of service time frozen in past periods of austerity, totalling six years, six months and 23 days”, writes Lusa, even though the prime minister has said, time and again, the equivalent of “it’ll never happen”.
