Teachers at state universities call 24-hour strike after veto vote

Unionised teaching and non-teaching staff have announced a 24-hour strike after lawmakers in the lower house Chamber of Deputies voted not to overturn President Javier Milei’s veto of a new university funding law.

The decision was announced by the Frente Sindical Universitario, which said state universities would be subjected to a walkout on Thursday. 

It called on its members to back its calls for improved salaries for staff and larger budgets for state higher education institutions.

“The people have been defrauded and democracy has succumbed to the anti-republican management of the national government, which governs by decree,” read a highly critical statement issued just minutes after lawmakers backed Milei’s veto in Congress.

“We repudiate the deputies who voted against the popular mandate to defend the university,’ said the grouping, which represents teaching unions from faculties at public institutions.

“A political alliance has been formed that shows no sensitivity to the suffering of the great majority and to the demands of all sectors to maintain what is essential: public universities and public education,” declared the statement.

The Front called for “quality public university [system] for our people and decent salaries for those who support it, teachers and non-teachers.”

The document is signed by the National Federation of University Teachers (CONADU), the National Federation of University Teachers (FEDUN), CERA, the UTN Teachers‘ Association (FAGDUT) and the Argentine Teachers’ Union (UDA).   

– TIMES/NA