Pay pushes Venezuelan teachers to protest, consider quitting

By REGINA GARCIA CANO
Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Public school teachers across Venezuela had planned to use their annual vacation bonus to buy uniforms for their children, waterproof leaky roofs and get new prescription glasses. But a few days into their long break, teachers have been marching by the thousands around the country, threatening to strike and or even to abandon their profession because the government paid them only a fraction of the bonus they get at the end of every school year in July. The National Budget Office based the bonus on the $1.52 monthly minimum wage of 2021 instead of the current $30. The government has responded to the protests by promising to readjust payments.