EI European affiliates tells Bulgarian government to respect teachers' rights!
The EI Pan-European Structure that met from 6-7 Dec in Luxemburg passed a resolution on Bulgaria,calling on the Bulgarian government to respect the striking teachers' rights and meet their demands. The European Region of EI represents a total of 143 teacher organisations in 44 countries.
Since 24 Nov, as many as 2000 teachers in Bulgaria went on hunger strike to demand the government to allocate at least 5 per cent of the country's gross domestic product for education and increase their pay by 15 per cent starting next year. EI launched an Urgent Action Appeal on 30 Nov, asking affiliates and partners to show their solidarity with the striking teachers. Below is the content of EI Europe's resolution in English: Education International European Region (Pan-European Structure) The Pan-European Committee of Education International and the Executive Board of the ETUCE, representing 143 teacher trade unions in 44 European countries, meeting in Luxemburg on 6/7th December, 2005, Recognising * the importance of European countries and their governments respecting international commitments to uphold international standards relating to human and trade union rights; * the commitments made by many European countries which aspire to membership of the European Union to uphold and enforce the standards of the European Union in relation to justice and democracy; * the critical role which a successful education system plays in the economic development of a country; Demand * That the Government of Bulgaria recognises and respects the trade union rights of teachers and of their unions in the country; * Upholds the principles of the EU and ILO in relation to trade union recognition and rights; * Encourages the participation of teachers and their union representatives in debates on the future development of their education systems; * Prioritises expenditure on its education services to ensure that high quality services are available free of charge to all citizens and that the teachers and other education workers are adequately remunerated. Supports * The actions taken by the teacher unions in pursuit of these goals.
