The Public Meeting of Estonian Teachers on October 25, 2011 to Support the Salary Fight

The public meeting of Estonian teachers on October 25, 2011 in Tallinn, on the square in front of the Riigikogu (the Estonian Parliament), was a great success. We had approximately 1800-1900 participants (we expected 1000-1500), among those also staff members from early childhood education institutions. As the Estonian Educational Personnel Union organized the transport, teachers and other staff members of educational institutions were able to arrive from all regions of the country. Therefore we can say that from all ca 14 300 teachers and staff members who work in schools in Estonia approximately 10% participated at the meeting. The meeting was supported by other trade union organizations, e.g. railway workers, cultural workers, medical staff union etc. Representatives of parents’ union, students and others came to the meeting to support the justified salary demands of teachers.

EEPU’s proposal to the Estonian Government was to raise the minimum levels of teachers’ salaries by at least 20% from January 1st, 2012. The teachers at the meeting criticized both the Riigikogu (parliament) and the Estonian Government, who have neglected to solve the issues to provide a salary rise for teachers that would be a demonstration of how the teacher’s job is valued. At the negotiations that were held on September 19, the Estonian Government said that they do not find it possible to raise the teachers’ salaries from January 1st, 2012, as it is more important to keep the state budget in balance and there were no additional allocations planned for teachers’ salaries in the draft budget bill that was presented to the Riigikogu.

The communication, approved by the public meeting, was presented to the Riigikogu and to the Estonian Government. The speaker of the Riigikogu, Ms Ene Ergma received the delegation of the meeting with the communication and there was a serious longer discussion about the problems that teachers have to confront, concerning their work and their salaries.

The media paid a lot of attention to the meeting – there were many articles in the press, interviews and stories both on TV and on the radio. The attitude of the media was positive. Here is a quote from the online news site Delfi: “Thinking of the public meeting that was held last Tuesday, we must say, that we have never seen such a well organized meeting with well-reasoned arguments in the New Estonia before.”

We are looking forward to the necessary resources being allocated in the state budget for 2012 to meet the teachers’ justified salary demands.