SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 7 Jan. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The school transport companies in the Islands have communicated this Saturday to the Ministry of Education, Universities, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands that they will maintain the strike announced for this Monday, January 9.
Through a statement, the regional department has regretted that despite having accepted all the demands of the Federation of Transport Entrepreneurs of the Canary Islands (FET), they maintain their decision not to provide this service on the day they return to school after the holidays. Christmas, which affects some 37,000 students, who are transported.
From the Ministry of Education they wanted to remember that the second cycle of Infant, Primary, Secondary, Baccalaureate and Vocational Training in public centers totals more than 244,000 students.
The department headed by Minister Manuela Armas has indicated that in order to solve this problem it has maintained direct communication these days with the FET since the announcement of this measure, which took place on January 5, and adds that conversations will continue with the shipping companies to address this issue.
The Ministry has clarified that as it is an employer’s strike and not a strike, it prevents the minimum services from being guaranteed. Likewise, it has specified that the strike is scheduled for a single day, that of this Monday, and it is reported that the educational centers will remain open to carry out their usual activity and that this strike will not affect other complementary services such as the dining room.
From the regional department they have highlighted that the historical debt acquired by previous governments that the carriers claim is a commitment assumed by the Ministry of Education, whose amounts are established in the 2023 budget with an increase of 9 million euros compared to the previous year.
In the Canary Islands, in the current school year there are 1,486 transport routes, which represents an annual investment of more than 50 million euros for the Canarian Executive.
