Teachers stage one-day strike

Students across the country were locked out of schools as teachers staged a one-day strike over low wages and demands for pension reforms last week. According to the Ministry of National Education, 50 percent of schools participated in the strike.

Teachers are seeking a 50-percent salary increase by 2010 and requesting that current pension rights remain.

Poland's biggest teachers' union, ZNP, representing around 300,000 education professionals, has criticized the government's proposal. "This [pension reform] is unacceptable for us," ZNP spokeswoman Magdalena Kaszulanis told Reuters.

"The size of our pension depends on our wages," said Jadwiga Pięta, an elementary school teacher at Jan Paweł II in Świetokrzyskie voivodship. "Teachers make around zł.1,500 to zł.1,800 net a month after 20 years of work."

The current pension system allows around 1.3 million people, mainly public sector workers, to retire early. However, the PO government plans to cut that number to 140,000.

Defending the strike, Kaszulanis said, "There is time now for negotiations with the government, but if our demands are not met, we will start a longer protest as of the beginning of the new school year in September."

Pięta agreed and wished there was another way to get the government's attention. "It's sad that society hates teachers. It bothers them that we finish earlier, have vacations, but everyone deserves a vacation. [People] should work together, for the benefit of the children."

The legal retirement age in Poland is 60 for women and 65 for men, but the government estimates the average age of people leaving the job market at 56 and 58 respectively.