Thursday morning began with the vote on the Law on Financing of Public Universities, which was finally approved by the Chamber of Deputies. With 143 affirmative votes, it represents an important step in the fight for more budget and salary increases and a blow to the government that tried to boycott it until the last minute and ended up being defeated.
In the afternoon, he continued with other bad news for Milei, namely the ratification of a new 48-hour strike for next week and the proposal of a National University March for the second week of September.
The vote on the partial sanction of the University Financing Law is a first and important victory for the teaching, non-teaching and student struggle. Among other points, the vote was to update teaching and non-teaching salaries by the CPI from December 2023 to the date and clause…
— Christian Castillo (@chipicastillo) August 15, 2024
The measure was ratified at the Plenary of General Secretariats of Conadu and also at that of Conadu Histórica. Both teaching federations agreed in emphasizing that the protest actions take place “within the framework of unity with the National University Trade Union Front.” In this way, The new national strike will take place between Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 August.
The resolution marks a continuation of the plan of struggle that university teachers have been carrying out. In addition, they are not only demanding a salary increase but also against the declaration of essential education at all compulsory levels, something that aims to attack the right to strike, as was made clear during the session of Deputies this Wednesday.
🔵Within the framework of a new Plenary of General Secretaries, CONADU defined the continuity of its Plan of Struggle.
🔗https://t.co/QGdwLJHFQI pic.twitter.com/iUYWNvy87n
— CONADU (@PrensaCONADU) August 15, 2024
In its statement, Conadu Histórica said: “The plenary rejected the approval by the Chamber of Deputies of Education as an ‘essential service’, understanding that it violates the right to protest of workers in the education system. This is aggravated by an increase in the gap between salary increases and inflation increases, which, as we have pointed out, generally exceeds 57% and reaches 101.8% in the initial position.”
Prior to the meeting of Conadu Histórica, the UBA Teachers’ Union decided in an assembly to propose to the plenary the holding of a strike of “no less than 72 hours” and stated: “We must orient the entire plan of struggle towards the paralysis of the national universities until we achieve our demands. In this sense, we support the takeover of the National University of San Luis, the inter-claustro, inter-union and inter-union assemblies, and all the struggles that are oriented in this direction.”
The Plenary of General Secretariats of CONADU Histórica decided to continue the protest actions for the real recovery of wages and within the framework of unity with the Trade Union Front of National Universities. August 20 and 21: national strike https://t.co/xekyLPOO3Q pic.twitter.com/HGeYb560kO
— CONADU Histórica (@CONADUHistorica) August 15, 2024
The continuation of the strike comes amid criticism of public universities, with teachers and non-teaching staff salaries at rock bottom and a proposal by the government for a measly 3% increase in August and 2% in September. So far this year, salaries have already lost nearly half of their purchasing power and more than 80% of teachers and non-teaching staff earn salaries below the poverty line.
In all this time, with the great university march in April as the main event, it has been seen that there is a significant will in the entire university community to fight for its defense, something inseparable from the salary increase of those who support it day after day. That is why it is important to insist on the need to extend this debate from below to all faculties, holding assemblies and inter-faculty meetings, making the conflict with public classes visible and strengthening the organization among students, teachers and non-teaching staff. It is important to achieve the broadest unity and coordination together with other sectors to confront the government’s hollowing out policies and Milei’s entire plan.
Source: www.laizquierdadiario.com
