WORLD WORLDWIDE SOUTH AMERICA BRASIL - news journal UPDATE - (en) Brazil. OSL: Education professionals in São Paulo lead strike against the Nunes government (ca, de, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

 Since April 15, education professionals have approved a strike against

the far-right government of Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB), who has
orchestrated several attacks against the category in an evident policy
of precarious living and working conditions in favor of neoliberal logic
in education. ---- Nunes' attacks ---- At the end of 2024, Nunes and his
legislative base approved Law 18.221/24, which promoted attacks on the
municipal public service of São Paulo, dismantling the Civil Servants
Statute. In the specific case of education, the law suspends the Special
Integral Training Day (JEIF) for reassigned teachers and for teachers on
leave of more than 30 days (until they return to work), resulting in a
drastic drop in pay. In short, Nunes wants to punish workers for getting
sick - ignoring the fact that school conditions and low pay are triggers
for illness.

Nunes has also made clear his interest in privatizing/outsourcing school
management, following the model of the São Paulo state school system of
his ally Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans). To this end, his government
stated that the 50 schools in the network that had the lowest IDEB
scores would be on the list of the first privatizations/outsourcings. In
the 2025 school year, the Education Department is putting enormous
pressure on schools to meet targets that ignore factors that guide the
school reality - such as the social and economic vulnerability of
students, an element that directly influences learning difficulties. The
goals are not random, but rather designed to fail: this is how the city
government obtains its "justifications" to promote
privatizations/outsourcing - remembering that, in the City Council,
there is Bill 573/21, by Councilwoman Cris Monteiro (Novo), which aims
to outsource school management and could be resumed at any time.

It is important to consider that, in 2025, the city government of São
Paulo has a budget of R$125 billion, the largest in history. Around R$23
billion is earmarked for municipal education, a very considerable
portion. It is no wonder that private companies (related to the
education segment or not) are interested in taking over the management
of schools, as has already happened with the new CEUs in the city of São
Paulo.

Despite the record budget, Nunes led a new attack: he sent Bill 416/2025
to the Chamber of Deputies, which proposes a general annual adjustment
in two installments: 2.6% starting in May 2025, and 2.55% starting in
May 2026. In addition, specifically in education, he proposes the
payment of a supplementary allowance (subsidy) of around 6% to the
minimum wage for the municipal education career (QPE 11A, education
professionals with teaching experience and not a full degree), excluding
other segments of the career. In short: teachers, support staff,
coordinators and directors are limited to a paltry percentage, which
does not compensate for the accumulated inflation of recent years -
while São Paulo city councilors increased their salaries by 37% in
November 2024, increasing their remuneration from R$18,991.68 to
R$26,080.98.

Bill 416/2025 was approved in the first vote on the 23rd, after a
maneuver led by council members from Nunes' base (who, in addition to
being "traditional" politicians, also includes influencers and parasites
linked to the MBL). The second vote is scheduled for this Tuesday, the
29th, after a public hearing - which is nothing more than a protocol
measure.

The successive mistakes of the union bureaucracies

Once again, the main unions of the education and municipal civil service
category - currently divided into Coeduc (Sedin, Sinesp and Sinpeem) and
the Forum of Entities (Aprofem, Sindsep, among others) - acted in a way
that harmed the mobilization of the category. The political disputes
between the union entities of Coeduc and the Forum of Entities, being
unable to unify the fight - remembering that education professionals are
also civil servants like everyone else - cause outrage and discomfort to
the majority of the category, which understands the need for a unified
action in order to strengthen the forces.

Coeduc, which brings together the three largest municipal education
entities, made a mistake by scheduling the strike late, only on 04/15,
instead of calling a meeting for the beginning of the school year -
considering that, in 2025, the category has already begun to come under
attack from Law 18.221/24 and its consequences. Instead, after a strike
scheduled for 03/18, Coeduc - in yet another truculent maneuver by the
union leadership - imposed regional strikes (by Regional Education
Directorate) with local mobilization, fragmenting the struggle. The
ineffectiveness of this option became evident on 04/09, when Ricardo
Nunes sent PL 416/2025 to the Chamber, "running over" the union
bureaucracies and forcing them to hastily call the meeting on the 15th.

The erratic stance of some of the organizations of the so-called Unified
Opposition, which make up the minority leadership of Sinpeem - the
largest union in education and municipal civil servants as a whole -
stands out. They knew in advance that Coeduc would propose regional
strikes in an imposing manner at the assembly on 03/18, but they did not
denounce this when they had the opportunity to speak - contributing to
the delay in the struggle.

In addition, the unions were at the mercy of Nunes' anti-union policy,
which took the strike to court on the same day it was declared -
appealing to the ordinary courts instead of the Labor Court, the
competent forum to address labor issues. The ordinary courts approved an
injunction requiring that 70% of the workers remain working, with a
daily fine of R$10,000 in case of non-compliance - to be paid by the
unions. The conciliation hearing, held on April 23, ended inconclusively
- after all, there is no compromise with an extreme right-wing government.

What do we defend?

Given the complex situation in which we find ourselves, only one
alternative is viable: to continue the fight. We call on workers to show
up in force at the demonstration/assembly on Tuesday, April 29, the day
of the second vote. It is essential to demonstrate the strength that the
category has to block attacks from anyone.

We also defend that, regardless of the result of the vote, we remain on
strike in unity with other segments of the municipal civil service,
since we need a real adjustment that at least makes up for the inflation
accumulated in recent years.

However, we cannot limit ourselves to the weakened method of "vigil"
imposed by union entities in recent years, placing the category
passively in front of the city hall or the Chamber building as if
begging for the mayor and his base of council members to do good. The
fight needs to be radical and intense: in addition to closing schools,
pressure must be applied by closing roads in the city and using direct
action methods - which have already been used by the category at other
times. Simply depending on the actions of opposition council members
serves to pave the way for defeat.

EVERYONE TO THE COUNCIL!

MAY THE SCHOOLS REMAIN CLOSED AND THE CATEGORY SHOW ITS STRENGTH!

AGAINST LAW 18.221/24 AND PL 416/2025!
IN DEFENSE OF A TRULY PUBLIC AND EMANCIPATORY EDUCATION!

Libertarian Socialist Organization
April 2025

https://socialismolibertario.net/2025/04/29/profissionais-da-educacao-de-sao-paulo-protagonizam-greve-contra-o-governo-nunes/
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