Several thousand teachers begin strike in Lithuania

On Friday, the Lithuanian Education Workers’ Trade Union (LŠDPS) started a strike. Some of the striking teachers are walking from their schools to the government building in Vilnius. 

Andrius Navickas, head of the LŠDPS, has said that the strike could last about a month.

On Friday, a picket was also held in Vilnius, in front of the government building on Vincas Kudirka Square.

A total of 2,439 workers are on strike in 132 schools across Lithuania, 2,257 of whom are teaching staff, including 2,100 teachers, according to data released by the National Education Agency (NŠA).

The strike affects 7 percent of the country’s schools.

Meanwhile, the head of the LŠDPS, which is organising the strike, said that around 3,000 teachers in 185 schools were going on strike on Friday.

According to the NŠA, in addition to the more than 2,000 general education school staff on strike, over 200 pre-school staff and a few non-formal education and vocational school staff are also striking.

The largest number of strikers, 568, is in Klaipėda, followed by Vilnius, where 301 workers are on strike.

‘Cry for help’

Lilija Bruckienė, deputy chairwoman of the LŠDPS, was among a group of teachers who occupied the Education Ministry for several weeks during a teacher strike five years ago.

Now, she, along with other colleagues from the port city of Klaipėda, is embarking on a march to Vilnius.

On Friday morning, up to a hundred teachers and students supporting them gathered in Klaipėda’s Atgimimo Square, where the march was set to begin.

“Just as teachers go to classrooms, now they are going to Lithuania,” Bruckienė, a teacher of Lithuanian language and literature at Klaipėda’s Vydūnas Gymnasium, told BNS.

Navickas is on Friday starting his march to Vilnius from Ąžuolo Gymnasium in the northeastern town of Zarasai.

The LŠDPS leader says they expect to walk about 15-20 kilometers daily and reach the capital in about a week.

In some Lithuanian schools, the strike will be a quiet one.

At Vilnius’ Žvėrynas Gymnasium, there are no signs of the strike and no protest warnings on the classroom doors, even though more than 20 teachers are on strike at the school on Friday and their number is expected to double next week.

Odeta Jonikienė, a history teacher at the gymnasium, called the strike “a cry for help”.

“We do not want to strike, nor is this some kind of entertainment,” the teacher told BNS.

“Look at what’s happening. Why aren’t young people going to schools (to work as teachers)? Because they can’t make ends meet,” she added.

Hoping for compromise

The LŠDPS is organising the strike after failing to reach an agreement with the Education, Science and Sport Ministry on teachers’ working conditions.

The government proposes to increase teachers’ salaries by a total of 21 percent in two stages next year, so that they reach 130 percent of the country’s average wage by the autumn of 2024.

The ministry’s proposals do not satisfy the LŠDPS, which is one of several teachers’ unions, which demanded a 20-percent increase in teachers’ salaries from this September, followed by an additional 30 percent rise from next January.

“I’d hope that the ministry will present proposals for a compromise that will be acceptable to both sides,” said Bruckienė.

“Then I won’t have to walk back home,” she added.

Education Minister Gintautas Jakštas told striking teachers on Friday that there are no available funds for increasing their salaries beyond the government's current proposal, but added that he remains open to talks on other issues.

„When it comes to finances, there will be no more money; this is the maximum the state has, including all borrowing limits,“ Jakštas told teachers protesting in front of the government building.

„This is the absolute maximum financially, but we understand that there are issues apart from salaries. We can talk about all of them and see where we can start and what issues need to be solved,“ he added.