Russian Teachers Want Back Pay

Teachers across Russia walked out of their classrooms and into the streets Thursday, launching a two-day strike to demand billions of rubles in back wages.

In Moscow, hundreds of demonstrators waved placards and a few Soviet flags in front of the Russian White House, headquarters of the government.

Teachers’ unions say the government owes educators about $118 million in back pay, and complain bitterly about crumbling schools and the declining prestige of the profession.

“A gray-haired professor, after 20-25 years of work at university … has hardly enough money to feed himself and buy decent clothes,” geology professor Vladimir Silayev said at the protest.

Educators demonstrated from Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East to the Kuban region in the south, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

President Boris Yeltsin ordered the government Sunday to reduce the backlog in unpaid state wages, pensions and other social benefits. State employees complain of months-long wage delays.

Some teachers are seeking pay raises as well. Teachers’ salaries average about $43 monthly, while senior professors average $172 a month.

Some regional officials agreed to teachers’ demands in anticipation of the nationwide protest, which cut the number of educators participating in the strike.

The strike comes three days before Russia’s parliamentary elections, and threatens the optimistic campaign of Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin.