Bac: several teachers’ unions call for strike from Monday

The date of March 23 as a new day of mobilization against the pension reform should save baccalaureate specialty exams , which will be held from the 20th to the 22nd of this month. But the decision “very angry” in certain schools which wanted to mobilize earlier, explains a trade unionist.

An inter-union comprising the FSU, the CGT, FO and SUD Education therefore called on Friday evening to “continue the mobilization during the specialty tests, including by the surveillance strike where possible”. The UNSA and the Sgen-CFDT did not sign the appeal.

“A real concern”

The signatory unions, who have long been hostile to the holding of the specialty tests in March, take the opportunity to reaffirm their opposition to the current calendar which they see as “pedagogical nonsense”, with tests which come “far too early” in the school year. Added to this are negotiations on the subject of ” Work more to earn more which “do not pass”.

To cope with the strike, “additional supervisors are mobilized”, recalls the Ministry of National Education. “The ministry asks us to provide supernumerary supervisors, but this is not always possible, says Agnès Andersen, deputy general secretary of the union of heads of establishments ID-FO. Sometimes you are at the end of what you can do with the personnel you have for normal operation. So, if the rectorates have not anticipated, some establishments risk finding themselves in difficulty, there is a real concern. »

In some establishments this Friday evening, there were chairs, to install the students in the canteen rather than in classrooms, in order to mobilize fewer supervisors. “General assemblies are scheduled for Monday morning, we do not know how the teachers’ rooms will react”, indicates Bruno Bobkiewicz, secretary general of SNPDEN-UNSA, the main union of school heads.

The precedent of 2019, in everyone’s mind

“Everyone is very annoyed by the pension reform and the attitude of the government – including us – but we will make sure that things go well,” he continues. The disruptions of the baccalaureate exams in 2019, but also in 2020, sometimes with smoke bombs in the classes and retention of copies, have left bad memories in high schools.

“We support the movement against the pension reform project because our working conditions are extremely degraded and it is out of the question to work two more years”, insists Agnès Andersen, “but we are fundamentally opposed to any form of violence and the blockade of establishments. How could one support the fact of preventing pupils from taking their specialty tests? »

The main parents’ federation, the FCPE, called on the ministry to “preserve the right to strike for teachers while guaranteeing the proper conduct of the tests”.

Variable situations

“We will never call to block the rooms”, also insists Mathieu Logothetis, academic co-secretary of the SNES-FSU of the Créteil academy.

Several trade unionists expect go-slows, with visible demonstrations but no real disruption of the events. The situation will probably vary greatly from one school to another. Jules Siran, federal co-secretary of SUD Education, nevertheless sees “first encouraging signs of mobilization”. He calls on the government to “postpone the specialty tests”.

Many teachers are torn between opposition to reform and the risk of penalizing their students. Some also fear that public opinion, hitherto favorable to the mobilizations, will turn against them, in the event of excesses. “It is always heartbreaking for teachers to be reduced to acting on these tests, because our role is to prepare students for the baccalaureate and that they succeed”, continues Matthieu Maheo, from SNES-FSU. de Bretagne, an academy which, with SUD Education, the CGT and FO, was the first to call for a strike on Friday morning.

The principals also fear the blockages of high schools which would come from other high school students, preventing their elders of terminale from composing, with a risk of violence.