D-Day for educators: Deal or strike?

Educators decide whether they will come to an agreement with the Government of Serbia and join the strike.

The Prime Minister of Serbia, Miloš Vučević, will meet with representatives of the trade unions on Thursday (January 9), and the meeting, as announced, will begin at 13 pm in the Serbian Government building.

The main demand of educators, around which spears are breaking, is that the Government fulfills what it committed to in the protocol it signed with the unions in 2023 - that the starting salary of teachers with the seventh degree of professional education be equal to the average national salary.

Minister of Finance Siniša Mali and Minister of Education Slavica Đukić Dejanović are in the Government's team for talks with employees in education.

The president of the Vojvodina Educators' Union, Milan Trbović, told N1 that if the negotiations with the Serbian government are just another "fooling" of educators, we should not proceed with further negotiations, but go on a general strike.

"We suspended classes for four days, on September 16, October 2, November 1 and December 20," Trbović said. "We have presented our demands and we expect them to be fully respected by the Serbian government. Whether he will or not, that is a question for the Prime Minister".

Trbović expects that educators will stick to their demands.

When asked what would happen if there was no agreement, Trbović replied that the membership had already been surveyed and that they were waiting for the results.

"That survey contained only one question: 'Are you in favor of suspending work from January 20, 2025, if our demands are not met?' We expect answers from the field," he explained and added that he thinks "the demands are not excessive."

"I would even say that they are modest, but they are demands that do not fall below the minimum dignity of educators," Trbović said.