(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #249 - Higher
education: Precarious against low wages (fr, it, pt) [machine
translation]
At the University of Lyon II, teachers and precarious teachers earned on several of their
claims after six months of mobilization six-week strike and occupation. At the University
of Paris VIII, staff are in their ninth week against low wages and job insecurity. ----
Strikes on wages, employment and working conditions, there is every day in business. When
it is building at a university, this seems exceptional. And it is. The university is a
world where one hesitates to attack the employer, because the president of the university
is elected by his peers professors. Where demand on wages seems exotic, since even with
precarious contracts and revenues more than limited for certain categories, it was the
chance to work in a temple of knowledge, and should rather stick together to ensure its
service mission despite public ministries working to destroy them. Where to strike would
deprive the students of their access to this knowledge, which in the minds of many
teachers is almost as serious as to block a hospital emergency department.
Yet there is every reason to fight. At the University of Lyon II, it is the contractors
who are on strike[1]. Es recruited for a semester or a year, they are paid by the
hour-classes. They and they required such a contract and payment for their time, they were
still waiting at the end of the first half: in most universities, contractors are not
monthly-es.
Increase of 98 euros per month
It took six months of mobilization, six weeks of strike and holding notes and an
occupation to earn it, and reimbursement of registration fees for those who exercise these
sales under a student status, and which must therefore start by giving money to the
university to be able to work. The duration and severity of the conflict, for which should
meet the basic rights of any employee-e-speaks volumes about the climate in the universities.
At the University of Paris VIII in Saint-Denis, the BIATOSS staff (technical and
administrative staff) have been on strike for nine weeks at the time of writing. Mostly
women, they demand a wage increase of 98 euros per month (200-employee of the university
are earning less than 1,200 euros) and fight against insecurity. In February, the
President of the University began to withdraw paydays. Another feature of the sector: it
is very rare that universities identify the strikers, who therefore do not pay for
withdrawal. The decision illustrates the determination of the presidency, but also how
social conflicts are "managed" at the university. Usually, it has neither the strikers or
strike days, which certainly makes it less expensive, but also has the effect of
invisibiliser: strikes do not appear in the social balance sheets universities such.
Concrete demands
In recent years, the staff of the universities have often struggled unsuccessfully against
structural reforms that deteriorating working conditions and employment. The struggles of
Lyon II and Paris-VIII are rather pressing concrete demands: jobs, wages - even if it is
tied to national policies.
This is the place to start to halt the machine. Everything to do: build control unions
convince the employee-es universities have rights like any other, and that the strike is a
means to enforce them. And generalize these conflicts, to avoid that we should fight six
months to get a decent salary.
Julie (AL Saint-Denis)
To know more:
Blog Lyon-II individual contractors mobprecvaclyon2.wordpress.com
Facebook page of the strike at Paris-VIII: low wages Collective of Paris 8
[1] 1. See "No contract, no pay, no peace" , AL No. 248, March 2015.
http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?Enseignement-superieur-Precaires
