Independent Union: Representative Teacher Unions Weak Link in Student Protests

Aleksandar Vučić, Belgrade, Dec.1 2024 (Photo: PrintScreen YouTube)

The Independent Teachers' Union of Serbia said in a press release on Dec. 25 that the regime of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had found the weak link in the protests of university and high school students and teachers -- the so-called representative teachers' unions.

Delegates of those representative unions sat on the Serbian president's couch to work out a deal to overcome problems in education, the press release reported, noting that this was a euphemism for ending the blockades, strikes and protests in schools.

"The deal between Aleksandar Vucic and the leaders of the 'representative' unions boils down to a ten-percent increase in teachers' salaries starting in October of next year. At a time when hundreds of thousands of citizens, with university and high-school students at the forefront, are taking to the streets every day to fight for a working legal state, the 'representative' unions are making deals with the president of Serbia, who has no constitutional or legal authority over education, centering their financial status in this deal with him," the press release reads.

The Independent Teachers' Union went on to say in the press release that, while the students responded to Vucic's invitations with ridicule to and his offers of material gain by reminding him of the limits of his authority, taking the stand that they will not sell out their ideals and crucial values for financial gain, the leaders of representative unions went to see the Serbian president "like subjects begging for the sovereign's mercy."