Teachers strike again in Lithuania as new budget is adopted

The Lithuanian Education Workers' Trade Union (LŠDPS) has declared a strike in light of the approval of the new budget. Educators demand a significant increase in wages.

This is reported by LRT.

LŠDPS demands that the government allocate a higher salary for teachers in the new annual budget. According to the protesters, a compromise could be at least a 15% increase, while the government emphasizes that a 10% increase is the most feasible.

The Lithuanian teachers' union argues that a slight increase in wages will only offset inflation but will not address the issues of overtly low and unattractive pay in the field.

Andrius Navickas, the head of the Lithuanian Education Workers' Trade Union, stated that LŠDPS expects the country's president, Gitanas Nauseda, to use his veto power on the new budget.

"We hope that the president will still support us; there is no need to go there and protest. We count on the president's support," the union leader said.

It is worth noting that upon approval by the Seimas, the president has only ten days to approve or reject the budget plan for 2023.

Navickas announced that, for now, the union will temporarily suspend the strike but will not end it permanently.

"We will have another council meeting, but I think the decision will be to temporarily suspend activities because students, parents, and teachers are really struggling financially," the teacher said. "We definitely don't plan to stop; maybe we will return next year, perhaps there will be strikes during the budget redistribution," emphasized Navickas.

According to the National Education Agency, over 1200 teachers have joined the strike as of today.

It is worth recalling that in the last weeks of November, the Lithuanian teachers' union already protested. At that time, more than 3,000 teachers and over 200 educational institutions participated in the strike.

Earlier, the Czech Republic was rocked by one of the largest protests in its history. Approximately 74% or over seven thousand kindergartens and schools across the country, as well as other unions, participated in the strike.

The protests were triggered by a new package of cost-cutting measures and a $6.7 billion tax increase presented by the Czech government.