The agreement states that a first instalment on the yet unpaid bonuses for 2007 and 2008 will be paid on June 30. The second and final instalment on the bonuses will be paid between Dec. 30, 2009 and Jan. 5, 2010. 

The agreement was approved Sunday by 76.9 percent of the 36,940 teachers who voted on the proposal. Teachers working more than 20 hours a week (an estimated 92 percent of those in the public school sector) will receive a payment of US$885 in June and those working fewer than 20 hours US$530.

The agreement was rejected by the Antofagasta and Atacama regions (Regions II and III) on Friday, but the majority support given the proposal from the National Teachers’ Association means teachers in these regions are expected to return to school on Monday, as in the rest of the country.

“This agreement is obviously much better than the previous one (which involved various instalments),” said National Teachers Association President Jaime Gajardo, who signed the agreement on Sunday on behalf of the teachers’ union along with representatives from the Education Ministry. “On Monday we will return to school with our heads held high.” 

Gajardo also labelled the actions of Education Minister Mónica Jiménez “deplorable,” saying she did not take an active part in negotiations.

“The minister had no effective role in this process,” he told the press Saturday. “She only joined the negotiations yesterday [Friday] and didn’t say or bring anything to the discussion, as she was outside the process, watching what everyone else was doing.”

Teachers in Valparaíso (Region V) wholly rejected the agreement, saying they should have received special treatment since they had pioneered the protest of the unpaid bonuses.  They said they would continue striking until an agreement was reached with the city of Valparaiso, which is in charge of distributing the bonus to the region’s teachers.

Guido Reyes, president of the Valparaíso Teachers’ Association, said his colleagues had been expecting to receive all their bonuses from 2007 and 2008 in one instalment, rather than two like the rest of the country.

“We deserved this special treatment on a moral level, because we have been campaigning on this issue for almost a year,” he said. “We did everything we could to make the existence of the unpaid bonuses known, even though it was denied by local mayors and the undersecretary of education.”

Valparaíso mayor Jorge Castro said this weekend that a possible agreement to end the strike in Region V could be in place by Sunday. Teachers in Valparaíso have been on strike since April.

Patricio Castañero, a Metropolitan Region public schoolteacher, told the Santiago Times the agreement was insufficient.

“What teachers in Valparaíso are requesting is that the bonus is paid in one instalment, and I and many other teachers believe that is what should happen for all teachers in the country,” he explained. He also expressed his regret at the amount of class time missed by schoolchildren, but pointed out that the strike was about much more than past-due bonuses. 

“I believe this strike represents not only the demands of one union, but is representative of a general discontent among workers throughout Chile,” he said. “The problem with the bonuses was that the municipalities failed to distribute them to their teachers, which is not surprising, since some 70 percent of regional municipalities are bankrupt. In terms of education, we need a much more centralized system which will deal with issues like this on a national rather than a local level.”

Pablo Zalaquett, president of the Chilean Municipalities Association Education Commission and mayor of Santiago, said efforts must now be focused on recuperating lost school days. He also explained that a council of education chiefs will meet this week to discuss methods for improving municipal education and to establish directives for restarting classes across the country.

Although Zalaquett confirmed that the decision about how to recuperate lost classes would be taken on a municipal level, he said, “The only sure thing is that public school classes will run into part of the winter holidays, part of the summer holidays in Region V [where the strike is still continuing] and some Saturdays, especially for final-year students who have to take their PSU exams (used for college applications) in December.”

Some schools are also likely to consider extending the school day in addition to opening Saturdays and running over into the summer and winter holidays.  Such plans will have to be approved by the Education Ministry.

SOURCES: EL MERCURIO, LA TERCERA, LA NACIÓN
By Chris Noyce