The federations and unions of the National University Front have declared a week of protest from March 16 to 21. They are demanding that the far-right national government comply with the University Funding Law passed by Congress. “How many more times must the Argentine people say they want a country with public universities spread across the entire nation?”. In this context, organizations such as the university teacher and non-teaching staff unions FEDUN and FATUN—both affiliated with the CGT—are holding a 24-hour strike this Monday. “Budgetary and salary asphyxiation is leaving the country without a public university and without a future.” University labor organizations began this week of protest with forceful measures affecting various public universities across the country. “The measure is part of the continuation of the struggle plan and a state of alert, in defense of the University Funding Law and its urgent application, for the public university, and for dignified wages and free collective bargaining,” explained FATUN. Meanwhile, the CONADU and CONADU Histórica federations, also representing university teachers but affiliated with the CTA de los Trabajadores and CTA Autónoma respectively, will hold week-long strikes. “The situation is unbearable,” declared CONADU Histórica for its part. “The university community demands that the government comply with the University Funding Law approved by Congress,” they stated, and denounced that “The government is violating the basic norms of representative democracy. In this sense, the academic year is beginning without being able to develop normally,” the Front Syndicate indicated in a communiqué, and demanded: “The government must comply with the University Funding Law that Congress voted on six times and the Judiciary reaffirmed.” “The far-right national government of Javier Milei must call for collective bargaining, provide responses on salaries, scholarships, science and development projects, and funds to sustain the functioning and substantive activities of our universities,” they demanded. According to the labor organizations, the protest schedule could extend with new strike days and activities to publicize the conflict in universities across the country. “We denounce the grave situation in which we, the workers of the Universities, find ourselves. Teachers and non-teaching staff earn less than half of their salary compared to November 2023.” Meanwhile, teachers at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) are pushing for a tougher measure: an indefinite strike. The proposal was voted on in assembly by the UBA Teachers' Guild (AGD-UBA), which plans to maintain the strike until salary recomposition is guaranteed and the University Funding Law is applied. In addition to the strike, the unions announced that the struggle plan will include public classes, mobilizations, and various protest activities at the faculties to make visible the demand for the university budget. In this context, on Wednesday CONADU Histórica will hold a virtual “mateada” on March 18 at 5 p.m., with a hybrid debate (in-person and virtual) on Labor Reform and Gender Inequalities, led by Jimena Frankel and Mariana Campos, researchers and members of the Institute for Studies and Training (IEF) of CTA Autónoma. To register, contact the union organization via their Facebook.
