The president of the Republic, Bernardo Arévalo, in the company of officials of the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC), reported on Wednesday, April 30 regarding the Negotiation of the Collective Pact with the union presided by Joviel Acevedo.
In his message from the National Palace, the president indicated that when they entered the government they did it with the knowledge of the country’s needs and are transforming the country’s educational system.
He said that for months the MINEDUC has worked to achieve a collective pact that supports the educational transformation process, since dignification is key
However, the negotiation “has not been able to conclude by a fundamental point, the refusal of the Union of Workers of Education of Guatemala (Steg) to discuss articles inherited from the anterior pact, which illegally grant the secretary general of that union functions that correspond exclusively to the Ministry of Education.”
He added: “That is, it was illegally granted rights, powers that make it a quasi parallel minister and that is unacceptable in a rule of law. You cannot talk about educational progress as long as a pact that undermines public institutionality is maintained.”
He said that “you can’t talk about dignified education as long as a pact that does not watch over it is maintained.”
He added that as a president he has coordinated to respond in the background. “Consequently we have decided to increase the salary that education workers deserve without further delay complying with what we promised, the increase in education salary will be 5% from June 2025,” he said.
In addition, an increase to the annual bonus for teaching and administrative personnel of 20%.
“We are not going to postpone the salary improvement needed by education workers for the intransigence of the Steg union leadership to negotiate elements that were illegally granted,” he said.
He added that through the Attorney General’s Office They are presenting a general unconstitutionality action to correct “the abuses that remain in force in the current collective pact.”
“We are not breaking the dialogue and we are not getting up from the table, this government believes in dialogue and legality and that is why I trust that in the negotiation of the pact can be clean, respectful and transparently,” according to Arévalo.