|
Teachers return to work after strike
By Huang Zhiling (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-10 09:04
CHENGDU: Two private schools in Sichuan province resumed operation yesterday after hundreds of teachers ended a strike to protest low salaries and the lack of pensions. No agreement has been reached between teachers at the Chengdu Foreign Languages School and Chengdu Experimental Foreign Languages School and their owner, the Chengdu-based Derui Group, said an official from the Chengdu Experimental Foreign Languages School. A huge crowd of students' parents gathered outside the Chengdu Experimental Foreign Languages School before 9 am yesterday morning. "Our children have entered the school compound. But we do not know if the teachers will come. We have mixed feelings. We hope the classes resume so the children can continue their studies. But we also have sympathy for the low-paid teachers," said a middle-aged woman. The woman said students used to pay 15,000 yuan ($2,200) a year to the school as a so-called "fee to build the school", but they now need to pay an extra 5,000 yuan. School authorities said the 5,000 yuan collected from each student would be used to increase teachers' wages but school officials have never done so, the woman told China Daily. The strike started after teachers in the Chengdu Foreign Languages School had a dialogue with Yan Yude, chairman of the Derui Group, last Thursday. Teachers asked for a pay raise, and Yan offered an average increase of 1,000 yuan per month. Teachers rejected Yan's proposal, saying many State-owned schools in the city had recently given their teachers a monthly pay raise of 3,000 yuan per month, said Ma, a renowned teacher of English in the city. Teachers said that Yan's arrogance and his wife's cursing of them prompted them to strike at around 2 pm. When the news spread to the Chengdu Experimental Foreign Languages School, teachers there started a strike around 3 pm on the same day. Since the Chengdu Experimental Foreign Languages School, a former State-owned school, became private in 2002, teachers have not had a pay raise despite repeated requests, said a fourth grade teacher surnamed Li. School officials purchased the lowest social insurance for the teachers, who will find their pensions will not make ends meet after retirement, Ma said. As teachers in both schools had not promised to resume work, the city's education bureau intervened over the weekend, serving as the schools' trustees. The bureau had given the teachers a Monday deadline to resume work, otherwise it would find other teachers to replace them, said an official from the Chengdu Experimental Foreign Languages School. In other words, teachers who did not comply would become jobless, Ma added. The teachers agreed to resume work. Although no agreement has been reached, teachers hoped their treatment would be improved as the strike had caused such a stir, said the official from the Chengdu Experimental Foreign Languages School.
(China Daily 11/10/2009 page4) |
