ISU Hands Strike Baton over to University Lecturers
Bratislava, February 15 (TASR) – Some university lecturers went on strike on Monday, taking over from the Slovak Teachers Initiative (ISU), which is interrupting its strike on the same day while remaining on strike alert, TASR learnt from a University Lecturers Initiative (IVU) press conference at Comenius University.
“We’re going on strike as of today in protest against the way in which our colleagues are being treated,” said Juraj Halas from IVU, which is organising the strike.
According to Halas, lecturers from 15 Slovak universities have joined the strike. He didn’t provide any specific numbers, but said that there are hundreds of them.
“It’s a sign of disagreement with the undignified social status that this country is assigning to teachers, but it’s also in support of ISU’s three demands,” said Halas.
IVU is pushing for the same demands as ISU. It wants salary increases for all teaching and other professional staff in regional education by €140 per month as of this year and by €90 per month as of the beginning of 2017. It also demands increases in the budgets of the Education and Interior Ministries to the tune of hundreds of millions of euros in order to tackle differences in equipment among individual institutions.
Despite the strike, universities won’t be closed down. The staff on strike will organise discussions, cultural events and meetings.
