Faced with the government’s failure to live up to its promises to teachers, EI’s affiliate, Asociación Dominicana de Profesores y Profesoras (ADP), is preparing to step up its fight for decent working conditions for Dominican teachers.
Over the past year, the education unions in the Dominican Republic have waged a successful campaign for four per cent of GDP to be allocated to funding quality public education for all.
Commitment to education The campaign’s mass mobilisation put pressure on the candidates in the national elections to sign a Political and Social Commitment to Education. This commitment had several pillars.
One of these was the implementation of public policies to ensure decent working conditions for teachers: decent salaries, housing, further training, teaching materials, and social security.
In this year’s budget, however, the Education Ministry has not included the widely anticipated 100 per cent-salary increase for teachers. Instead, it has proposed a wholly inadequate increase of 20 per cent.
Salary strains The basic salary for teachers in the Dominican Republic is US$219 per month. The cost of the basic monthly shopping basket, however, as defined by the Central Bank for the poorest in the country, is US$292.68.
“The Education Minister’s salary is US$7,317, without all the additional benefits,” said Teresa Cabrera, ADP President and a member of EI’s Executive Board. “This is just one example of the inequality that prevails in the Dominican Republic.”
A national ballot was held on 25 February among the grassroots’ members of the education unions on whether they would accept the government’s offer of a 20 per cent increase. Some 50,000 teachers voted in the referendum, and 98.88 per cent of them rejected the government’s proposal.
Smear campaign The ADP responded to this by mobilising its members, to draw the government’s attention to the need to substantially improve teachers’ incomes.
“Instead of listening and responding positively to our demand, the government began a smear campaign against the union, holding it responsible for the poor quality of education,” explained Cabrera.
She believes the government’s response is a reflection of its determination to impose neo-liberal education policies, whereby an increase in teachers’ salaries is tied to the results of standardised evaluations instead of being linked to the cost of the family shopping basket.
Buildings, not people The ADP has also been critical of the fact that nearly all the additional money in the education budget has been earmarked for building schools.
This has occurred for two reasons, said Cabrera. Construction has been a means, “through the highly corrupt practices of the Dominican State, for public officials to appropriate public funds to make personal fortunes”.
Secondly, she adds, the model the government is seeking to impose implies that “the human dimension does not count, and the role of teachers is undervalued”.
Action plan After the National Strike on 5 March, the union sat at the negotiating table on 11 March to begin collective bargaining on a pay agreement. If they do not succeed by Thursday, 14 March, the ADP plans to hold a national rally in the capital, Santo Domingo, on 17 March.
EI fully supports the Dominican teachers in their struggle to defend decent working conditions together with the necessary conditions to ensure quality public education.