Sociedad

On February 11, thousands of teachers took to the streets to protest working conditions in schools. The strike, called by all the educational unions, reached 54% of the entire workforce. The teachers expressed their frustration over the complexity in the classrooms, the system’s demands regarding their responsibilities, and the wage freeze. That was the start of a yellow wave that has continued to be visible. It is now June and the conflict has not been resolved. What has happened since then?

The Ustec union registered a strike call from June 8 to 12 on Thursday night and an indefinite CGT strike starting on the 8th. The registration of the dates took place after failing to reach an agreement on salary and resource improvements in education following hours of negotiation. This same Friday, amid the exchange of accusations between Educació and unions, the Ustec spokesperson has already warned that if no agreement is reached, they do not rule out coming out with a strengthened schedule of mobilizations.

The standoff continues between Educació and teachers’ unions in Catalonia. Yesterday Thursday, after six hours of negotiation and 300 million more on the table, there was no agreement and the union representatives decided to lock themselves in the conselleria headquarters.

The sectoral meeting this Thursday between the Conselleria d’Educació i FP of the Generalitat and the unions with representation, the seventh to address the labor improvements demanded by teachers, ended without agreement around 9 p.m., after more than 5 hours of meeting. After the meeting, the union representatives locked themselves in the department arguing that they would not move until the sector minister, Esther Niubó, negotiated with them. The minister came, but urged them to continue negotiating this Friday, a proposal that did not end up convincing the unions, who remain locked in.

The teachers’ strike called for this Thursday in Vallès and Maresme is affecting traffic on the main roads of both counties. According to Trànsit, the C-32 is closed in Mataró towards Barcelona. The same road is also closed in Cabrera de Mar towards Palafolls due to a demonstration.

The Provincial Court of Barcelona has sentenced Yago Zarroca to three years in prison and Màrius Montmany and Oriol Hernández to two years each as responsible for the organization Yes We Help for a crime of aggravated fraud. Although the sentence is not final, the Chamber considers it proven that the alleged NGO of “international volunteering” was actually seeking to recruit and deceive hundreds of teenagers under the promise of participating in humanitarian projects in Ghana and Sri Lanka.

Almost 90 drones fell from the sky over Darling Harbour in Sydney during a popular winter light show, with footage showing the devices plunging into the water near the audience. The organizers of Vivid Sydney, an annual three-week festival featuring large light installations, stated that the failure on Monday night, local time, was due to “unforeseen technical difficulties” and have canceled several upcoming shows.

Taking the cruise ship ‘MV Hondius’, affected by a hantavirus outbreak, to the Canary Islands was a decision guided “by science, humanity, and Spain’s reliability” and has allowed controlling the mortality. At this moment there are 13 positive cases (two Spaniards), among them, the three passengers who died before the ship was moved to the Canary archipelago. This represents a mortality rate of just under 24%, a figure far from the usual ones for this virus, which approach 40%.

Always faithful to the appointment, the first hot days have already arrived. And as it gets hotter, you know the scenario: 40º, shutters down, sleepless nights… and sometimes, the power goes out. The couple electrical failures / heat is no coincidence. When the temperature soars, so does electricity consumption, because the family takes refuge at home and you turn the cooling system up to the max. If other appliances are running at the same time — the TV, the video game console, the microwave, the washing machine… — the power can go out right at the worst moment.

One more year, Catalan universities have a majority presence within the top ten best Spanish campuses in the ranking carried out annually by the CYD Foundation, which this year reaches its 13th edition. Thus, up to seven centers appear on that list: the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) – which shares second place along with Carlos III of Madrid -, Pompeu Fabra (3rd position), Ramon Llull (5th), Internacional de Catalunya (6th), Universitat de Barcelona (7th), Politècnica de Catalunya (8th) and Rovira i Virgili (10th). Compared to the previous year, two Catalan universities – Internacional de Catalunya and Politècnica – have joined this top ten, raising the total number from 5 to 7.