Vijay Actor A Christian

We have the right to have rights ....

Brief History

late nineteenth century the workers organized in different unions began to demand with "8 hours, 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours of leisure." Met strong resistance from employers and governments. In this context, in 1886 in Chicago began a strike demanding respect for the 8-hour day. This strike was not only brutally suppressed, but many labor leaders were jailed, prosecuted with false charges and sentenced to hang. They will be known as the "Martyrs of Chicago" and in his memory the Socialist Workers' Congress of the Second International, held in Paris in 1889, set May 1 as International Workers Day.

Since that time the workers began to be more organized and continue to demand our rights. Thanks to great fights (and not gifts of any government) were making some gains, in the first Argentina 8 hours of work, the recognition of unions by the government and employers, later retirement, bonus, the right to social, employment insurance, etc.

In the 60 and 70 workers organize ourselves how we have never done in Argentina and began to fight from our workplaces to uphold the agreed improvements and achieve new rights. However, our claims do not end there. Along with other social sectors were looking to build another type of society, an egalitarian society, solidarity, where men do not live in the exploitation of their peers. But our project is truncated. After came the dictatorship, falling wages, the disappearance of many companions, the impossibility of internal committees and delegates at the workplace undoubtedly the dictatorship was our darkest days, we take years to recover ...

For improved democracy some things, but others remained the same. Our salaries remained low, suffering hyperinflation, labor reform and devaluation. Over time some groups of workers achieved gains that improved their situation, but many others we are still very complicated. Almost 40% of employees work in precarious situations, this means that our jobs are unstable, with partial or total amounts in black, with rights annulled, with the possibility that we fired at any time. So today one of our most important fighting is to end the unstable working conditions and ensure that labor gains that cost so many years of struggle and sacrifice are for everyone ...

And teachers as we walk?

education workers are no strangers to this general process of insecurity that has been developing in our country in recent years. Consider some examples. Our base salary is only 50% of our total income or pocket, the rest is made up of sums in black or gray (amounts not paid, non-subsidized, etc.).. We also think we have been having difficulties to securitize, this means that many of us work as substitutes or temporary, which means unstable conditions (only the owner is unstable). Another example of insecurity manifests itself in our daily work, as there are no appointments necessary for all the needs that exist in our schools, many times we take care of the school, parents attending consultations, filling out forms, must leave our course and our task for which they were formed: the teaching-learning process.

For all these reasons, having to do with wages and our working conditions, we believe that the unstable working conditions is also present in schools and has expanded in recent years.

But ... How do we fight this problem?

education workers (like all workers) must recognize our ability to change reality, change the world we live, think, both in small as in the great transformations, so we must organize both our union and in our workplace and from there to fight every day to better our working conditions, overcome differences, to talk issues with other colleagues, to elect delegates, claim, participate and organize ... we should not naturalize the situations that affect us ... we must strive collectively to transform them!