The school year starts on February 26 across most of Argentina. But this year, classrooms could remain empty as teaching unions mull provincial and national strikes to demand wage negotiations. The government has also declined to pay an annual fund that contributes to teachers’ salaries nationwide.

The national Confederation of Argentine Education Workers union (CTERA by its Spanish initials) will meet on Thursday to decide whether to take industrial action.

“On Friday the government said they would be opening wage negotiations, but we haven’t received any calls yet,” CTERA leader Sonia Alesso told the Herald on Monday. The union will evaluate strike action if the call doesn’t come this week. “Not calling negotiations would be a mistake on the government’s behalf,” she added.

“Argentina is a federal country, therefore education is the governors’ responsibility,” President Javier Milei told La Red radio station on Thursday, adding that provinces “will have to pay for [the teachers’ fund] with their own money.”

He also said provincial governments “should stop organizing charity concerts and pay teachers, instead of hiring artists for political propaganda.” In response to this, Alesso said Argentina’s education law states that national and provincial governments share responsibility for providing children with education.

Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni said last week that the government was considering opening wage negotiations soon, but a decision had yet to be made.

In Argentina, national negotiations set the minimum wage for teachers countrywide. This is then used to set provincial wages.

Public school teacher salaries are funded by the provinces, but the national government pays them a sum of around 10% of the teachers’ salary, known as “teachers’ incentive.” 

This year, Milei is refusing to deposit the money in the Teachers’ Incentive National Fund (FONID, in Spanish), saying the government will not renew the fund. The previous government had renewed it for two years in January 2022.

The FONID was created in 1998 and has been paid consistently until now. Another fund for teachers in poorer provinces, known as “compensation fund,” was not paid this year, either.

Despite the lack of renewal for the FONID, “the money should be available because it is included in the national budget,” Alesso pointed out. “They are going against the law.”

Alesso said CTERA had a meeting with Education Secretary Carlos Torrendell in December. “They never told us these funds would not be paid, nor that they wouldn’t be opening wage negotiations,” she said. “We learned about this from the presidential spokesman’s press conference.”

She added that, in addition to the FONID and the compensation fund, the government also failed to pay educational funds used to build schools, help public school cafeterias where pupils have free lunches, and programs such as Conectar Igualdad (which gives pupils free laptops).

Governors including Axel Kicillof in Buenos Aires province and Gustavo Valdés in Corrientes decided in January to pay teachers the remaining money from provincial resources. However, others have warned they cannot afford to follow suit.

In Congress, opposition deputies have filed bills to reestablish the FONID and make it permanent, rather than requiring periodic renewal.

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