After a number of failed negotiations between the regional governors (later the Minister of Education) and teachers’ union representatives, President Kuczynski got involved inviting the teachers’ delegates to meet to find an acceptable solution for both sides. But only the leaders of the unions executive committee were welcomed while representatives of the regions led by Castillo were excluded. Offended and angry teachers from across Peru travelled to Lima marching and demonstrating in the Peruvian capital. Interestingly, right-wing Keiko Fujimori, who lost the run-off for presidency against President Kuczynski a year earlier, and her Fuerza Popular party, who controlled Congress and were fierce opponents of the Kuczynski government, supported Castillo to destabilize the president’s government.

The strikes only ended about three months after they began when the government made a number of concessions to the strikers and officially issued a supreme decree granting teachers a salary increase and other benefits negotiated and then threaten to fire every teacher who didn’t return to work. A week later Pedro Castillo, as union leader, announced a temporary suspension of the strike. Protest, however, continued for another couple of months.

Castillo’s leadership role during the teachers’ strike raised his political profile and numerous political parties in Peru approached him in the aftermath offering to promote him as a congressional candidate, though he refused.