According to the secretary general of the National Union of Higher Education Teachers (Sinpes), Eduardo Peres Alberto, the strike, which was interrupted on April 5 for 30 days, was resumed this Monday due to a lack of political will on the part of the authorities.
"At the end of the deadline and if the Government did not provide solutions on the salary problem on the 9th, we would have to resume the strike and what the national secretariat did was to enforce the deliberations of the general assembly", the unionist told Lusa this Monday.
But, he stressed, "we demand from the Government recurring dialogue solutions without impositions as has happened with the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESCTI), so that we can reach an understanding and its fulfillment can be phased".
"It is already a fact that the strike has resumed, due to the Government's lack of political will to fully comply with the memorandum signed on November 17, 2021, which is an embarrassment for the country, especially if there is cancellation of the year academic", stressed the leader of Sinpes.
The strike, which began last January 3 and was suspended for thirty days, resumed this Monday for an "indefinite period".
Salary increases, better working conditions, payment of public debt and elections of the governing bodies of public higher education institutions are some of the demands of university professors.
A 6 percent salary increase was proposed by the President, João Lourenço, to teachers, which, however, was rejected in the general assembly, where they approved a proposal of 2.6 million kwanzas for the full professor and 1.5 million of kwanzas for the trainee assistant professor.
MESCTI announced, in April after the strike was suspended, that students had lost 14 academic weeks, as a result of the teachers' strike, and hoped that the differences with the teachers would be resolved.
The ministerial entity, in a statement to which Lusa had access, after the resumption of classes in public higher education, wished that the return of classes would not suffer another suspension and asked for the commitment of students and teachers to "make up for lost time".
