Overview
- Early-years staff in Madrid’s 0–3 centers have launched an open-ended walkout and rallied first at Spain’s Education Ministry, then outside the regional Education Department.
- Union-backed organizers said Minister Milagros Tolón met them and, by their account, pledged to study responses, with some claiming the ministry promised work on a bill and a Lomloe add-on for 0–3 that would include lower ratios.
- Strikers want smaller child-to-educator ratios and two educators per classroom to allow active methods used in early education, arguing current loads block quality care and learning.
- They also seek recognition as teaching staff, pay parity with colleagues in the 3–6 cycle, and equal hours, noting many in public-contracted and private centers earn the legal minimum wage.
- Authorities said centers operated with required minimum staffing and put strike adherence lower than organizers did, and media counts of the first rally ranged from several hundred to about 1,000 attendees.