Teachers go on strike and will not teach classes on April 28 in protest at the fact that the authorities refuse to increase their salaries up to the demanded level.

Chairman of the Education and Science Trade Unions Federation Dumitru Ivanov, in a news conference at IPN on April 12, said the decision to go in strike was taken after the last round of negotiations held with representatives of the Government on April 11. The Government proposes a 5% increase in salaries in the education system as of September 1 this year. The teachers demanded that their pays should be raised by 50%, but then agreed to a 30% increase as of January 1 this year.

Most of the teachers support the trade union’s decision to suspend the teaching process, while those who disagree will teach classes on April 28. “We oblige no one to stop the education process, but we will get nothing of what we want if we don’t do anything. We will continue the protests in different forms until the end of the current academic year,” stated Dumitru Ivanov.

“We will go till the end, even if we take risks. We are ready to continue our protests so as to wake the government up,” said Ion Bulat, first deputy chairman of the Education and Science Trade Unions Federation.

Ion Pocaznoi, department chair at the Technical University of Moldova, said the institution he represents will convene a meeting of the teaching and non-teaching staff on April 20 to decide the actions that will be taken on April 28.

Ana Cimpoiesu, head of the Hancesti Education Division, said the workload of teachers is great, but their salaries are small. “We are firmly convinced that the protests should be continued. The teachers in Hancesti will go on strike. We can no longer endure,” she stated.

The teachers have so far mounted a number of protests. Recently, the Government decided to increase the salaries of employees of pre-university, higher and post-university education institutions as of May 1, but the teachers are not satisfied with the announced rise.