CHAOS has erupted in Barcelona as striking teachers have blocked off an iconic tourist landmark with tables and chairs.
The Sagrada Familia has been forced to close and refund all tickets for today as protesting teachers and lecturers have sat outside the attraction on school desks.
This staff strike action comes in response to the accumulated dissatisfaction with the Department of Education from those working within the teaching sector.
Those protesting were seen taking tables and chairs from La Sedeta, a prominent public education complex in the city, and passing them to one another in a chain all the way to the entrance of the Sagrada Familia.
There, they set up the furniture, settled down and began chanting.
This day of industrial action is one of seventeen that public education unions have called for in Catalunya. The wave began on 11 May and ends on 5 June and centres on classroom conditions, workloads and pay.
They will continue with all of the planned walkouts unless a deal is reached.
A meeting had been scheduled on 15 May but it did not resolve the conflict with approximately 28,000 teachers favouring continued mobilisation.
The government is however still holding firm on the existing deal that was signed in March by the Catalan Generalitat, CCOO and UGT, the two largest trade unions in Spain.
This deal included a 30% rise in the regional teacher pay supplement which will be worth around €3,000 a year by 2029. It also allows for more funding for inclusive education and €50 per night for staff attending overnight school trips.
The majority of staff are unhappy with this deal and are therefore continuing to strike.
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They are asking for further changes to be made so that student-to-teacher ratios fall and that there is less administrative burden placed on those teaching.
As this dissatisfaction continues, it appears that the strikes will not be ending soon and that there will be more disturbances to city life, like today’s closure of the Sagrada Familia, to come.
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