The Dominican Teachers Association (ADP) has decided to step up the fight for a salary increase and is calling a 24-hour “warning strike” by teachers in all the country’s primary and secondary schools for today, Tuesday 5 March. ADP president Eduardo Hidalgo said that the strike is being held in response to what he dubbed the “media campaign” being waged by the Ministry of Education through paid advertisements in the press.
On Monday, 4 March an advertisement appeared in all the national newspapers, paid for by the Ministry of Education, in which they said that the demand for a 100% salary increase “would absorb around 50% of the increase to 4% of GDP for the budget of Education and would mean “sacrificing the construction of the 10,000 schoolrooms.” The education authorities also informed that there would be gradual salary increases for the teachers. They assured teachers that “as of February there will not be a single teacher who earns less than RD$15,000 for four hours of work.” Hidalgo said that “the millions” that Minister Josefina Pimentel is spending on “manipulating the information” should be invested in the SEMMA Medical Center.”