The Government of Tierra del Fuego and SUTEF agreed to open a technical table while the teacher strike continues indefinitely and the encampment persists in the three cities. The work will bring together Governor Gustavo Melella, the Ministers of Economy and Education, and the president of Banco de Tierra del Fuego. The immediate objective is to develop a salary proposal that would allow the conflict to begin to be resolved.
The union's secretary general, Horacio Catena, confirmed the call after meeting with Melella and with Minister Pablo López Silva. He described very high compliance and broad participation in the activities of the first day. To organize the protest, the union scheduled two daily meetings for the teaching staff on strike and camping, at 10:30 and 17:00, while each branch carries out its own actions.
The central demand is a recomposition of the real wage. Catena stated that the response requires economic resources and asked to reallocate items that today have other purposes. He also pointed out that the education financing law continues without treatment and demanded a political resolution. The union considers that the opening of the table was an achievement of the measure, but does not yet interpret it as a sufficient offer to suspend it.
The SUTEF set three conditions for returning to the classrooms: resolve wage deterioration, plan for greater educational investment, and avoid deductions for strike days. Catena proposed as a target a vital and mobile minimum wage of 3,000,000 pesos for a teacher with a single shift. To explain the loss of purchasing power, he compared the 1,330 dollars that position earned in December 2015 with the 330 dollars reached four years later and with the current stagnation.
The leader also linked the protest to the national underfunding and to obligations that, in his view, ended up being concentrated in the Province, from salaries to school maintenance. He recalled that the 2005 teachers' camp initiated labor and educational achievements, including assistants, educational partners, and school teams. That historical reference is part of the union's call to maintain unity and presence on the streets.
The gatherings will continue at the Ministry of Education of Río Grande, the camp in Ushuaia, and the designated points in Tolhuin. The technical committee must report whether there is budgetary room for a proposal and under what schedule it could be applied. Until a concrete salary response appears and the issue of deductions is resolved, the union will maintain the strike, the mobilization, and the camp throughout the province.
