Workers from the Margarida Xirgu and Eugeni d’Ors institutes in Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelonès) gathered this Monday at the doors of these centers to reject the Government’s plan to deploy plainclothes Mossos d’Esquadra to reduce conflict.
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These are two of the thirteen institutes throughout Catalonia where the Catalan executive plans to launch this plan experimentally.
Banners
The protesters have brandished slogans such as “Fewer Mossos and more social educators”, “Neither formatted nor uniformed. More resources and less police” and “Out with the forces of employment from educational centers”
The protests took place just before the start of the school day, called by teachers’ unions such as Ustec, the majority in the sector, and by workers’ assemblies.
The teachers and other workers from these institutes carried banners with slogans such as “Fewer Mossos and more social educators”, “Neither formatted nor uniformed. More resources and less police” and “Out with the forces of employment from educational centers”.
At the entrance of the institutes, large banners could also be read with phrases such as “More social resources and fewer police. Strikes show the way” and “More social resources and fewer police.”
The workers’ assemblies of both institutes in Hospitalet have issued a joint statement in which they demand that the Government withdraw the plan, which they believe will not help resolve the problem of conflict.
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“It is not solved with police measures, but with social ones,” this collective maintains in a joint statement, in which they advocate for the hiring of professionals specialized in accompanying students in complex situations such as social educators, counselors, or caregivers.
The Department of Education and the Mossos d’Esquadra announced last Thursday the start of a pilot test to deploy plainclothes police officers in Catalan schools to reduce conflicts, a measure criticized by teachers’ unions, who claim not to have been consulted.
The plan will be launched this month experimentally in thirteen secondary schools where the Mossos will attend regularly, dressed in plain clothes and unarmed, to intervene when necessary.
Specifically, the test will be carried out in the Educational Zones of Hospitalet de Llobregat and Vic (Osona), Alta Ribagorça-Vall d’Aran and Tàrrega (Urgell), as well as in two centers in El Prat de Llobregat and Sabadell (Vallès Occidental).
The announcement of the plan comes amid high tension between Education and the most influential teachers’ unions in Catalonia, after the department announced in early March an educational and labor agreement with the support of CCOO and UGT (minority in the sector) and without the approval of Ustec, Secondary Teachers (Aspepc-sps), CGT.
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