As the Croatian Government continues to pile the pressure on Croatian teachers as their long strike of over a month continues, the unions come up with meaningful and remarkably symbolic gestures to highlight not only their own plight, but the plight of other sectors operating within public services who are also struggling enormously.
Croatian teachers have been strike for longer than thirty days now, marking the longest strike ever in independent Croatia’s relatively young history. Talks so far have been fruitless, and the offer from the Croatian Government was slammed and overwhelmingly rejected by the teachers and their representative unions.
As the strike continues and negotiations and talks between the unions representing Croatian teachers and representatives of the government go on, with more reportedly set to continue today at 15:00, some have come up with a deeply touching idea.
As Jutarnji list writes on the 30th of November, 2019, through a moving and symbolic gesture, the teachers from the Sisak Technical School decided to show that the strike was primarily aimed at the dignity of the profession more than anything else, and that the strike of Croatia’s teachers had much more to do with basic morality and appreciation than finances.
An announcement came that Croatian teachers would not be paid during the time they spend striking, or that 315 kuna per day would be deducted from their salaries for each day they spend striking. Therefore, all of the teachers working at the aforementioned Sisak school decided that they would all allocate exactly that amount (315 kuna) per day and donate it to the local hospital, another public service facility suffering under tremendous pressure.
Trade union commissioner Damir Babic said that for each day of the strike from November the 16th to the 29th, all of the Sisak school’s teachers allocated 315 kuna each. With this generously donated money that comes wrapped in deeply symbolic proverbial packaging, more equipment was purchased for the hospital’s pediatric department.
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