"White Strike" currently implemented by more than 10.000 primary and secondary school teachers, which "exceeds initial expectations." of the Independent Union of Educational Workers of Serbia (NSPRS)", they announced on Monday, October 21, from this union.
"Employees in schools realize that the protest actions organized by the so-called representative unions do not lead to the desired results and therefore show an increasing interest in joining the 'white strike' by the end of the semester as a new way of fighting for better working conditions", concluded the Main Board of the NSPRS .
President of NSPRS Dušan Kokot tells "Vreme" that they got the information about how many teachers are on strike from the field from colleagues from other schools, and that teachers who are not union members also joined the strike. And that there are about 5.500 to 6.000 members in their union.
"It's a simple action that has its own clear purpose and it's not something that protects only the members of our union, but all employees in education," indicates Kokot.
When asked if there was any reaction from the authorities, Kokot states that there was no reaction.
"A few days ago we had a situation in Subotica, so we also had an attack on a school principal. If the state wanted to say 'let's try to change some regulations, let's see how things would unfold on the ground', we would certainly be ready to talk about it, but there is no such invitation", explains our interlocutor.
A huge number of high fives
The members of NSPRS previously announced that from October 14th they will only give grades of "excellent 5" to all students, and they decided on the so-called "white strike" because the Government and the Parliament of Serbia did not make appropriate changes to the law and accompanying regulations improved safety in schools, i.e. guaranteed teachers more effective legal protection against attacks, enabled students who behave inappropriately to be suspended from class without delay.
"It will happen that a huge number of students will have a huge number of A's in all subjects during the semester, and if that is not enough of a warning, it means that the state supports the white strike." Then it's obvious that they don't have any problem with it, it doesn't bother them, what's more, they might brag about their good results. It is up to the public to judge whether this is true or not," emphasizes Kokot.
He goes on to explain that even before the strike, the teachers were in some way on strike because they gave away their grades in the process of self-defense - "if no one guarantees your safety to work in accordance with the law, but actually every day you see people who respect the law being sanctioned, punished, attacked, beaten, reported, what would you do in the place of a teacher?".
"With this strike, we actually want to say that we want to work in accordance with the law." In order for that to happen, someone has to guarantee our safety, and not come with 'you know who I am' and bang his head on the concrete because of some trio. Every educator understood it as a message to himself because it is not an isolated case," concludes Kokot.
