Lecturers and teaching staff at Argentina’s state universities walked off the job on Tuesday as a 48-hour strike got underway.
No classes will be held at public higher education institutions amid a lack of progress on wage renegotiation talks with the national government.
According to union leaders, officials at the Human Capital Ministry have not called for a continuation of dialogue after presenting an offer they consider to be “insufficient.”
The walkout is the latest flashpoint between the higher education sector and President Javier Milei’s government, which is committed to steep public spending cutbacks as part of a bid to balance Argentina’s budget and reduce inflation.
Emiliano Cagnacci, Secretary General of the ADUBA teachers’ union, said in comments reported by the Noticias Argentinas news agency that “there is a crisis” facing the state universities.
“The budget is drowning month by month, reducing the income of teachers, non-teaching staff, researchers and health professionals who work and develop their activity in the university environment,” said Cagnacci.
Daniel Ricci, secretary general of the FEDUN union, said he expected “total compliance” to the strike measure by unionised staff at all 61 state universities nationwide on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“This measure is due to the loss of more than 50 percent of our salaries” in real terms, he said.
Awaiting a response from the government, unions are warning that a further strike could be held in September if there is no agreement.
This is already the second mass walkout of the month. On Monday, August 12, the doors of many public universities did not open for the beginning of the new term in response to “the government's outrageous wage proposal.”
At the most recent joint meeting of teaching and non-teaching union leaders and the national government, the Milei administration offered increases of three percent and two percent for August and September respectively, below the rate of inflation, which stood at four percent last month.
Unions denounce that this is an offer “below the inflationary indexes, in addition to the accumulated delay that this sector has accumulated throughout 2024.”
Argentina’s annual inflation rate currently exceeds 263 percent.
A mass demonstration earlier this year saw tens of thousands of Argentines take to the streets in defence of free higher education at public universities.
Another national march has been proposed for the second week of September.
– TIMES/Na/PERFIL
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