With the Ministry of Education unwilling to negotiate with the administrative employee unions to end the strike that is threatening the current academic semester, there seems to be little hope to find an effective and fair solution.
Student groups supporting the administrative employee strike against the suspension and dismissal plans have occupied many departments in the National Technical University of Athens and the University of Athens. The NTUA’s Schools of Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering operated yesterday, while the rest were occupied and decided to continue with their solidarity actions.
The administrative employees at the universities in Patra and Thessaloniki, who are not being affected by the controversial measure, decided to go on strike until Friday, while allowing teaching to continue as normal. The University of Ioannina, which was also on a 48-hour strike, will reopen today.
The University of Athens and the Technical University were scheduled to open yesterday, provided the administrative employees were not on strike, but both students and teaching staff alike were not allowed by striking employees to enter the university premises. Contrary to the Minister of Education Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos’ threat, the police was not called out to ensure the reopening of the universities.
The Ministry of Education has asked the courts to rule on the ongoing strike in hopes that it is found to be illegal and abusive, however university employee representatives asserted that in that case they would likely declare a new strike within a different framework or pursue strike action via public sector trade union ADEDY. The president of the administrative employee union Frangiskos Vortelinos spoke of “spasmodic actions by the Ministry of Education and the government because they are in the wrong”.
The Rector of the University of Athens Theodosis Pelegrinis is expected to call the members of the Senate to convene on Thursday, to reevaluate the situation in light of any further developments. In the mean time, the administrative employees have pointed out that the publicized lists of administrative employees facing suspension contain numerous errors and omissions, casting the government’s plans in doubt.
The next day
With the two universities not likely to open and the semester clearly at jeopardy, there are four different possibilities discussed amongst academics, students, strikers and government officers. The first possibility is for students against the administrative employee strike to intervene and end the new student occupations.
The second possibility involves the intervention of Justice, which will however cause even greater conflicts within in the institutions. Alternatively the Ministry of Education could declare a state of civil mobilization, similarly to the cases of strikes in urban transport and the maritime sector, but the backlash will be significant. The final possibility is for the administrative employee strike to continue in December, resulting in the loss of the semester.
